BF 

I SOI. 



I ■ ■ 



■ 



■ 



■ I, 

■ I 



■ r ■ 










■ 







■ 






■ ; 






■ *: 



■ 
■ 



■<• f, 



I ■ 









■ - 




Class _BE_VV&3 
Book_ i&SjL 
fopflifitaN?_.. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSfT. 



Spiritism, Hypnotism and Telepathy 

AS INVOLVED INvTHB CASE OF 

Mrs. Leonora E. Piper and the Society 
of Psychical Research, 

BY 

Clark Bell, Esq., LL. D. 

PRESIDENT MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY. 

^ AND THE 

DISCUSSION 

Before the New York Medico- Legal Society and its Psy- 
chological Section, 

BY 

THOMSON JAY HUDSON, LL. D. 
JOHN DUNCAN QUACKENBOS, M. D. * 

JUDGE ABRAM H. DAILEY, 
CLARK BELL, ESQ., LL. D. 
HON. LUTHER R. MARSH, 
H. C. WRIGHT, ESQ. 
ELEANOR GRIDLEY, 
T. D. CROTHERS, M. D. 
ALEXANDER WILDER, M. D. 
WM. LEE HOWARD, M. D. 
PROF. W. XAVIER SUDDUTH, 
MRS. MARY A. LEASE, 
REV. J. MINOT SAVAGE, 
M. LOUISE THOMAS, 
RICHARD HODGSON, LL. D. 
PROF. J. H. HYSLOP, 
REV. GEO. H. HEPWORTH, 
C. VAN D. CHENOWETH, 
LEONORA E. PIPER, 
F. E. DANIEL, M. D., 

AND OTHERS. 



1902. 
PUBLISHED BY 

MEDICO-LEGAL JOURNAL, 

39 BROADWAY, N. Y. 
Copyrieht, 1902, with all rights reserved, by Clark Bell, Esq. 



Spiritism, Hypnotism and Telepathy 

AS INVOLVED IN THE CASE OF V* 3 

Mrs. Leonora E. Piper and the Society 
of Psychical Research, 

BY 

Clark Bell, Esq., LL, D. 

PRESIDENT MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY. 

AND THE 

DISCUSSION 

Before the New York Medico-Legal Society and its Psy- 
chological Section, 

BY 

THOMSON JAY HUDSON, LL. D. 
JOHN DUNCAN QUACKENBOS, M. D. . 
JUDGE ABRAM H. DAILEY, 
CLARK BELL, ESQ., LL. D. 

HON. LUTHER R. MARSH, • r ■ > 

H. C. WRIGHT, ESQ. 
ELEANOR GRIDLEY, 
T. D. CROTHERS, M. D. 
ALEXANDER WILDER, M. D. 
WM. LEE HOWARD, M. D. 
PROF. W. XAVIER SUDDUTH, 
MRS. MARY A. LEASE, 
REV. J. MINOT SAVAGE, 
M. LOUISE THOMAS, 
RICHARD HODGSON, LL. D. 
PROF. J. H. HYSLOP, 
REV. GEO. H. HEPWORTH, 
C. VAN D. CHENOWETH, 
LEONORA E. PIPER, 
F. E. DANIEL, M. D., 

AND OTHERS. 



1902. 
PUBLISHED BY 

MEDICO-LEGAL JOURNAL, 

39 BROADWAY, N. Y. 

Copyright, 1902, with all rights reserved, by Clark Bell, Esq. 



. RV OF 
sGRESS, 

)902 

V.OHT ENTRY 

o^XXo. NO 
COPY B. 






•i < ••••••• •••• » • 

: i" ,•• * •• • •• •* • ••• .♦, 

• • ' • • • • • • » • ■ 



PREFACE. 



The questions involved in the discussion of the statement 
made by Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, as published in the New 
York Herald, October 20th, 1901, seem to have aroused a 
great interest in the public mind. It is quite needless to say 
that it created a profound sensation. 

In the Psychological Section of the Medico-Legal Society, 
especially; composed of students of psychological study of all 
schools of thought, and containing on its roll^ of members 
those who denied the immortality of the soul, those who be- 
lieved in what is known as modern spiritism, as well as those 
who denied it, the statement of Mrs. Piper awakened a very 
great interest. 

The whole incident was full of interest, and that it came 
up for discussion was of course most natural. 

The Psychological Section in joint session with the Med- 
ico-Legal Society, devoted two long extended sessions to 
the discussion of the subject, the December meeting 
of 1901, and the February meeting of 1902. The call 
for this discussion, came from all parts of our coun- 
try and from abroad, and it was such a call as could not well 
be ignored. 

The opening discussion at the December meeting received 
a very extended notice in the public press, confined to a part 
of the papers read at that meeting, which were published in 
the December number of the Medico-Legal Journal, delayed 
so as to embrace them. 

The remaining papers appeared in the March number of 
that Journal, and this work will embrace them all in one 
small volume. 

The authors have consented in nearly every case that their 
portraits might appear in the work, and the editor and pub- 
lisher has embraced them so far as he has been able to do so. 

It is hoped that the contributions made will be of interest 
to the students of psychology, as well in the Medico-Legal 



Society and the Psychological Section as outside of both, and 
reach a wider circle than the subscribers of the Medico-Legal 
Journal. 

The thanks of the author and of the Medico-Legal So- 
ciety and its Psychological Section are due to the New York 
Herald, for its courtesy in permitting the publication from its 
columns of the statement, and from other of its issues on the 
subject, and for the courtesy of the loan of the electros. Also 
to Harper Brothers, for some part of Dr. Quackenbos arti- 
cle, which contained extracts from their published writings 
by this author, protected by their copy right. Also to Ains- 
lee's Magazine for its consent to use the article of Dr. J. 
Minot Savage from its columns, on which they had protected 
rights. 

The press is proverbially courteous, and has been especial- 
ly so in this instance. . C. B. 

New York, June i, 1902. 



INDEX TO CONTENTS. 



Introductory ... 

Opening Paper by Clark Bell, Esq., LL. D., of New York 1 

Spiritism and Mrs. Leonora E. Piper by Thomson J. Hudson, Pb. D., 

LL. D., of Detroit, Michigan 4 

The Mutual Relation in Hypnotism, and its Bearing on Telepathic and 
and Spiritistic Communication by John Duncan Quackenbos, M. 
D., of New York City 21 

Telepathy and Mrs. Piper by. Clark Bell, Esq., LL. D., of New York. 35 

Spiritism and Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, and Dr. Thomson J. Hudson's 
Theories in Regard to It by Ex-Judge Abram H. Dailey, Ex- 
President of the Medico-Legal Socieiy of New York 47 

Spiritism, Telepathy and Mrs. Piper by Hon. Luther R. Marsh, of 

Middletown, New York 75 

Spiritism, Telepathy and Mrs. Piper by H. C. Wright, Editor of Eltka, 

of Corry, Pa 77 

Psychic Phenomena. Spirit Communication vs. Mental Telepathy by 

Eleanor Gridley, of Chicago 79 

Spiritism, Telepathy, Hypnotism and the case of Mrs. Piper by T. D. 
Crothers, M. D., of Hartford, Connecticut, Vice President Medico- 
Legal Society 85 

Telepathy, Spiritism, Hypnotism and the case of Mrs. Leonora E. Piper 

by Alexander Wilder, M. D., of Newark, N. J 87 

Spiritism and Mrs. Leonora Piper by Dr. William Lee Howard, of 

Baltimore, Md 94 

Thought Transference versus spiritism as an Explanation of many so 
called Spiritistic Phenomena by Prof. W. Xavier Sudduth, A. 
M., M. D., Fellow of the Chicago Academy of Medicine 97 

Telepathy, Spiritism and Mrs. Piper by Mary Elizabeth Lease 103 

Possibilities by Rev. George H. Hepworth, of New York 106 

Spiritism and Mrs. Piper by Richard Hodgson, LL. D., of Boston, Mass. 108 

Telepathy, Hypnotism, Spiritism and Mrs. Piper by Mrs. M. Louise 

Thomas 113 

Results of Psychical Research by Rev. Minot J. Savage, D. D 114 

Spiritism and Mrs. Leonora E. Piper by Prof. J. H. Hyslop 136 

Spiritism and Telepathy by C. Van D. Chenoweth, of Worcester, Mass. 138 

Mrs. Piper's Plain Statement as published in the New York Herald. . 140 
Prof. Wm. James, of Howard, as published in the New York 

Herald 150 

William S. Walsh, Esq., as published in the New York Hearld. . 151 

Dr. F. Wallace Patch, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, as 

published in the New York Herald 152 

Natural or Supernatural? "Spirits" or Telepathy? by F. E. Daniel, 
M. D., Austin, Texas, Vice-Chairman, Section Psychology, 
Medico-Legal Society, &c 154 

Conclusion and Summing Up of the Discussion by Thomson Jay 

Hudson, Ph. D., LL. D .163 



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of Clark Bell, Esq., LL. D 1 

" Thomson J. Hudson, Ph. D., LL. D 5 

" Dr. John Duncan Quackenbos .... 20 

Ex-Judge Abram H. Dailey 46 

" Hon. Luther R. Marsh 70 

H. C. Wright, Esq 76 

" Eleanor Gridley 78 

T. D. Crothers, M. D 84 

Alexander Wilder, M. D 88 

Dr. William Lee Howard 95 

Prof. W. Xavier Sudduth, A. M., M. D 96 

" Mary Elizabeth Lease 102 

" Rev. George H. Hepworth 107 

Richard Hodgson, LL. D. . . 109 

" Mrs. M. Louise Thomas 112 

" Rev. Minot J. Savage, D. D 115 

Prof. J. H. Hyslop 137 

C. Van D. Chenoweth 139 

" Mrs. Leonora E. Piper 141 

" F. E. Daniel, M. D 155 




CLARK BELL. ESQ.. LL. D.. 

OF NEW YORK. 

President Medico-Legal Society of New York, 

Secretary and Treasurer of the American Congress of Tuberculosis 



SPIRITISM, HYPNOTISM, TELEPATHY AND MRS. 
LEONORA E. PIPER. 



BY CLARK BELL, ESQ., LL. D., OF NEW YORK CITY. 



The publication in the New York Sunday Herald of Octo- 
ber 20th, 1 90 1, of an extended written statement made by 
Mrs. Leonora E. Piper regarding her relation to the Society 
for Psychical Research and particularly declaring that in her 
relation to that body as a medium for so many years, she was 
of the opinion that the phenomena, so far as she could un- 
derstand it, was due to causes allied to telepathy and hypno- 
tism rather than to the influence of the so-called spirits of 
deceased persons; created a lively interest and deep feeling 
among the students of psychology and modern spiritism, to 
the study of which many members of the Psychological Sec- 
tion of the Medico-Legal Society had devoted much atten- 
tion. 

The scientific world had regarded the labors of the Societv 
of Psychical Research on both sides the Atlantic with deep 
interest, and the persistency and courage, with which this 
body had pursued its labors, the character and high standing 
of the men, who had its work in charge, and the fairness, 
which had characterized its work and publications, had given- 
great prominence to the evidence it had collected and pub- 
lished on many subjects. As a body the Society of Psychical 
Research was not understood to have accepted the phenom- 
ena, known as modern spiritualism, and while it was known 
that many who had such opinions were on its roll of member- 
ship, it was in the early days, at least, not regarded other than 
a purely scientific body, without any avowed opinions on 
these subjects, courageously pursuing the study along scien- 
tific lines of all the phenomena, and under favorable condi- 
tions and by impartial and unprejudiced observers. 

Additional interest had been aroused in its work, from the 
fact, that Dr. Hodgson, who had the work of the society in 
charge in Boston, and Prof. Hyslop, of Columbia University, 

Read at February session Medico-Legal Society in joint session with 
the Psychological Section of that body. 



2 SPIRITISM AXD TELEPATHY. 

•as the result of their studies and investigation, both re- 
•cently,publicly embraced the spiritistic view as to the phenom- 
ena which had been conducted through Mrs. Leonora E. 
Piper, the medium who had been employed by the Society of 
Psychical Research for many years, and whose integrity and 
honesty had been quite generally accepted by all with whom 
she had come in contact. 

The statement made by Mrs. Piper in the Herald, created 
a very extraordinary excited state of feeling, and a high pub- 
lic interest was at once developed in the public mind. 

I thought it wise and proper to bring the subject before 
the Psychological Section of the Medico-Legal Society for 
discussion. 

At the December meeting, 1901, the discussion was opened 
by Thomson Jay Hudson, on my invitation, who contributed 
the opening paper, which was followed by contributions from 
Judge Abraham H. Dailey, Dr. John Duncan Ouackenboss, 
Clark Bell, Esq., Hon. Luther R. Marsh, H. C. Wright. 
Esq., some of whom were only read by title, on account of 
the time at disposal, and the whole subject made a special 
order for discussion at the February meeting of the Medico- 
Legal Society in joint session with the Psychological Section. 
;■ ft was deemed advisable, that the several contributions, 
should be printed in the form of a brochure, and the whole 
furnished as a volume, upon the subjects which the discussion 
.involve. And that the language used by Mrs. Leonora E. 
Piper in the statement, published in her statement as publish- 
. ed in the New York Herald, be carefully stated, so as to 
: make the subject of discussion more exact I give the lan- 
guage of Mrs. Piper which was as follows: 

tl /am inclined to accept the telepathic explayiation of all of the 
so called pyschic phenomena, but beyond this I remain a student 
with the rest of the world. * * 

"I must truthfully say that I do not believe that spirits of the 
dead have spoken through me when I have been in the trance 
state, as investigated by scientific men of Boston and Cambridge, 
and those of the English Physical Research Society, when 1 
taken to England to be studied. It max be that they have, but 
I do not affirm it." 

"The world knows that among scientific men the opinions 
on psychic phenomena are many and varied. I have always 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 3 

maintained that these phenomena could be explained in other 
ways than by the intervention of disembodied spirit forces. 

''The theory of telepathy strongly appeals to me, as the 
most plausible and genuinely scientific solution of the prob- 
lem. To strengthen this opinion are many authentic exper- 
iences which have been satisfactorily explained by means 
of the telepathic hypothesis. 

[In the reprint where quotations are used from her letter or 
the opinions of men of science, the Journal will be named : 
and credit given for all abstracts. Thanks are due the New 
York Herald and Ainslee's Magazine for courtesies in allow- 
ing extracts to be made from their publication and to Har- 
per's Magazine for similar courtesy in the article contributed 
by Prof. John Duncan Quackenbos to the Medico-Legal So- 
ciety.] 



SPIRITISM AND MRS. LEONORA E. PIPER. 



BY THOMSON JAY HUDSON, PH. D., LL. D., 

Author of "The Law of Psychic Phenomena," etc. 



In constructing a title for this paper, I have not been im- 
pelled to use the name of Airs. Piper because I imagine 
that her recent statement in the New York Herald has set- 
tled the question of spiritism adversely to the claims of that 
cultus. I have not so high an estimate of the value of her 
opinion. Nor do I agree with her spiritistic enemies in hold- 
ing that her opinion is valueless because of the amnesia in- 
cident to trance. This, at most, would place her on a level 
with outsiders, — and this is their contention. It must be re- 
membered, however, that not only was Mrs. Piper present at 
all her seances, but that she had the benefit of subsequent 
discussions of her phenomena by the able savants who had 
her in charge, and that she must have read their subsequent 
reports with much more than ordinary interest and intelli- 
gence. Moreover, we must not forget that she has been sub- 
jected, on two hemispheres, and during nearly a score of 
years, to a key-hole espionage by the ablest detectives of the 
London Society for Psychical Research: and that she has 
emerged triumphant, both at home and abroad, — not a shad- 
ow of a suspicion resting upon her character in any relation 
of life. Testimonials to this effect from all the leading mem- 
bers of the Society for Psychical Research have been num- 
erous and voluminous, and almost hysterical in their ins 
ence; so that she stands before the public to-day, secure in 
the possession of the highest possible credentials in proof of 
her absolute honesty, integrity and purity. It is also in ev- 
idence that she is liberally endowed with that rarest of all 
mental attributes — common sense — the inseparable concom- 
itant of the cardinal virtues. It is idle to say that the opin- 
ion of a woman tints endowed, and thus fortified bv all that 



Read before the Psychological Section and the Medico-Legal Society m 
joint session, Dec. 18, 1901. 




THOMSON JAY HUDSON PH. D., LL. D. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 5 

gives sanction to human testimony, and who necessarily 
knows more than any one else can know of the workings of 
her own inner consciousness, is not of greater value than the 
opinion of an outsider. 

Nevertheless, as before remarked,her opinion does not set- 
tle the question ; and in this respect she remains on a par with 
all who have opinions on the subject. It is not, therefore, 
because of her interpretation of her own phenomena that I 
use her name; but because the investigation of those phenom- 
ena by the Society of Psychical Research marks an epoch 
in the history of Spiritism. It is of that investigation that 
that I propose to offer a few remarks. In doing so I shall 
not attempt an exhaustive criticism of the methods of inves- 
tigation employed by the members of that society. I shall 
merely attempt to point out briefly what I conceive to be the 
proper method of studying the phenomena in the light of 
their latest reports detailing the proceedings at the Piper 
seances. 

Never before in the history of the scientific investigation 
of modern spiritism have the conditions been so favorable 
for the production of decisive results, one way or the other, 
as in this case. An ideal "medium," mentally, morally and 
psychically considered, is conceeded, — nay, strenuously in- 
sisted upon, — by all the investigators. She has been abso- 
lutely under their control during a long series of years, and 
necessarily free from the adverse influence of the Philistines. 
That the investigators are also all that can be desired will be 
as freely conceeded. They are all gentlemen of great abil- 
ity, uncompromising integrity and vast learning. Best and 
most important of all, they have a thoroughly logical appre- 
ciation of what it is necessary to prove in order to establish 
the claims of spiritism. That is to say, they know that the 
one thing needful is proof of personal identity on the part of 
the sot disant "spirits" who "communicate." In this all- 
important attitude they stand in violent contrast to that long 
line of so-called "scientific investigators," on either side of 
the question, who have imagined, on the one hand, that the 
essential claims of spiritism can be established by verifying 
the physical phenomena; and, on the other hand, that those 
claims can be disproved by catching a trickster in the act of 
simulating psychical phenomena by legerdemain. In other 
words, they know that the purely physical phenomena of 



6 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

spiritism possess not the slightest evidential value, pending 
the settlement of the all-inclusive question of personal iden- 
tity. They know, for instance, that if a piano should be lev- 
itated to the ceiling without physical contact or mechanical 
appliances, and all the rest of the household furniture should 
go into convulsions, the question would still remain whether 
the energy displayed proceeded from discarnate spirits, or 
was due to the ''psychic force" (Crookes) of the medium. 
Hence they have wisely determined to ignore all physical 
phenomena, and to confine their attention to such mediums 
as Airs. Piper, through whom, according to the spiritistic hy- 
pothesis, spirits can establish their identity by direct conver- 
sation with the sitter. 

It is but simple justice to the British members of the S. P. 
R. to say that to them the credit is due for thus divesting the 
subject of all those irrelevant side issues which have hereto- 
fore served but to obscure the real question. It is, however, 
with a glow of patriotic pride that we recall the fact that they 
were compelled to come to this country for an honest med- 
ium, and to draw upon our universities for a man capable of 
conducting a spritistic propaganda in the highest style of the 
art. It is but a matter of common justice to say that Pro- 
fessor Hyslop is the ablest psychical researcher who has yet 
attempted a personal investigation of the Piper phenomena. 
Hie is the peer of the best in scholastic attainments: he is 
Professor of Logic in Columbia University: his honesty is 
transparent, and the report of his investigations covers 649 
pages of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
Research. 

If therefore, he has failed to make a case for spiritism, one 
never can be made this side of the borderland; for there 
probably can never again be assembled under one roof such 
a combination of favorable conditions and instrumentalities. 
If there was an unsound element in the combination it did not 
reside with thie medium, nor in the character or ability or 
attainments of the investigator. Xor do I see the slightest 
reason for distrusting his statements of fact. His deficiencies, 
therefore, if any are to be found, must be either in logic, or 
in the propaedeutics of psychic science, or in both. 

The discussion of the subject will be conducted under two 
heads: 1, The issue that Professor Hyslop has defined: and 
2. The issue that Prof. Hyslop has ignored. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Referring at large to the phenomena detailed in his report, 
Professor Hyslop says: 

'The issue that is presented here, is simply whether spirit- 
ism, or telepathy from living persons exclusively, is the more 
rational hypothesis to account for the facts." 

It will thus be seen that the learned professor of logic as- 
sumes at the outset that the two hypotheses stand on an 
equal footing, thus forgetting for the moment the logical, 
axiom that supermundane causes must never be assigned to 
phenomena so long as they or their cognates are explicable 
by reference to known natural causes. 

To hold spiritism strictly to this rule, however, would be 
to end the discussion before it begins, for all admit that the 
"great bulk" (Myers) of the supernormally acquired knowl- 
edge of mediums is due to telepathy. It would, therefore, re- 
quire demonstrative proof to overcome the logical implica- 
tion that all such knowledge is not thus acquired; just as it 
would require the production and public exhibition of a 
"white crow" (James) to prove that crows are not all black. 
It would, however, require but one white crow for that pur- 
pose, and it would require but one demonstrated case of sur- 
vival of personal consciousness after the death of the body 
to prove the essential claim of spiritism — a future life. But 
this one case has not yet been produced, and Prof. Hyslop is 
frank enough to admit that he has demonstrated nothing. 
(See note on p. 4 of his report.) The issue, therefore, as he 
has defined it, is conservative and legitimate. 

To prepare one for an intelligent discussion of the ques- 
tion whether spiritism or telepathy is the more rational hy- 
pothesis to account for the phenomena produced by Mrs. 
Piper, it would seem that the essential prerequisite would be 
a knowledge (1) of the facilities and the difficulties, real or 
supposed, incident to communicating with spirits of the 
dead, and (2) of the methods, powers and limitations of tele- 
pathic communication between living persons. Unfortu- 
nately we can know nothing of the former except what spirit- 
ists to tell us; and their stories are so contradictory that it is 
impossible for the layman to assign any certain limits to the 
difficulties or to the facilities. Thus, the old spiritists tell us 
that communication is always easy, providing we have a 
good medium and a harmonious environment. The late Prof. 
Hare, for instance, found no difficulty whatever in organizing 



8 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

a "convocation of spirits'' of the ablest dead men he could 
think of, who cheerfully submitted to a prolonged catechism. 
To say that Prof. Hare learned from that "convocation," and 
•others equally well posted, all that was worth knowing about 
the spirit land and other things, would be to unduly limit the 
scope of the acquired information. Judge Edmunds was 
equally fortunate in obtaining authentic information, not 
only of the geography and topography of the spirit land, but 
of its current philosophy; whilst Andrew Jackson Davis suc- 
ceeded, without apparent effort, in tapping the philosophers 
of all the ages for material for upwards of thirty volumes of 
most remarkable literature. Thousands of others were 
equally fortunate in obtaining access to the inhabitants of all 
the spheres. Nor were the spirits tl emselves in the habit of 
complaining of lack of facilities, even when a Daniel Web- 
ster addressed his sitters in the language of a stevedore; or 
Noah Webster spelled Jehovah with a little g, or Lindlev 
Murray split his infinitives into kindling-wood. The enemy 
might blaspheme, and to do them entire justice they did, but 
the spirits themselves were oblivious to all such degenera- 
tive implications. They did not complain of difficulties of 
communication, nor of the failure of "light," nor of infirmi- 
ties due to their last illness of the body, nor of the failure of 
memory, nor of any of the multiform infirmities which afflict 
Mrs. Piper's familiar spirits when submitting to a scientific 
•examination. It is true that there were occasional lapses of. 
memory, as when Socrates forgot that he had been a Greek- 
philosopher, and "thee'd" and "thpu'd" like a Quaker when 
proudly recalling his career as a Roman Senator. This lapse, 
however, was afterwards explained by an erudite spiritist by 
saying that those "old fellows" have been dead so long that 
they have forgotten the "unimportant particulars" of their 
earthly lives. Satisfactory as this explanation is to spiritists, 
it does not explain the amnesia oi another spirit at the same 
sitting who had forgotten his own middle name within a year 
after entering the spirit land. Xor does it explain the 
prompt response of "Cantharides, the Greek philosopher," 
when that coleopterous "personality" was summoned by a 
waggish Philistine. That, however, was easily explained by 
the statement that there are always spirits present at seances 
who delight in serving the cause of Truth by promptly 
"meeting fraud with fraud." In the logic of spiritism this 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. J) 

formula has always occupied a foremost place, and it still 
performs yeoman's service whenever a fictitious personage 
responds with alacrity to a summons. 

But then, as now, there were mediums and mediums. 
Some were ignorant, and others were educated. Some of 
them were destitute of the ability to acquire information by 
supernormal means; whilst others could at times correctly 
name the strangers present at their seances, and describe and 
name a long list of their friends, living or dead. At other 
times the same mediums would fail miserably. In a word, the 
same diversity of mediumistic powers prevailed then, as now; 
the same "harmonious conditions'' were requisite; and super- 
normally acquired knowledge on the part of mediums was 
even more common than it is to-day. But there was one 
significant circumstance connected with early mediumship 
that does not prevail at this time; and that is that modern 
spiritism found a host of ready trained psychics in the mes- 
meric subjects of that epoch. Mesmerism was at the zenith of 
its popularity, mesmeric subjects were numerous, and under 
mesmeric methods telepathic powers were easily developed, 
and the exhibition of those powers was commonly the piece 
de resistance of the stage curriculum. But the significant 
part of it was that, not only was every mesmeric subject 
found to be a good medium, but the best of the mediums, 
that is to say, those who could demonstrate their possession 
of knowledge snpernormally acquired, were for a long time 
drawn almost exclusively from those whose telepathic powers 
had been previously developed by mesmeric methods. This 
fact was noted at the time by the opponents of spiritism, and 
•telepathy was thus shown to afford an easy explanation of all 
supernormally acquired information. Indeed, Dr. Dods, a 
noted mesmerist of that day, paralleled every phase of that 
class of spiritistic phenomena by the employment of mes- 
meric psychics and processes. With Dr. Dods it was but the 
a b c of mesmerism to develop telepathic powers in his sub- 
jects so perfectly that they could correctly describe events 
wholly unknown to the psychic or to any other person pres- 
ent. And this is all that the best mediums can ever do. It 
is all that spiritists claim can be done in proof of personal 
identity. It is true that in experimental telepathy the "dra- 
matic play of personality" is necessarily lacking. Of this 
""dramatic play" Prof. Hyslop discourses exhaustively, seem- 



10 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

ingly oblivious of the fact that trance subjects, are dominated 
by the inexhorable law of suggestion; and that any suggested 
character will always be dramatically personated, and with 
marvelous fidelity to the original,be it a dog or a philosopher, 
a spirit of health or a goblin damned. 

This, however, is a digression. The point I wish remem- 
bered is that the alleged difficulties of communication by 
spirits seem to be widely variant ; and that the facility in each 
case appears to be proportioned, not to the mental capacity 
of the spirit, but to the psychic powers of the medium. This, 
to say the least, is not what one would naturally expect, if 
the communications are from spirits. But we know that if 
the phenomena are to be explained by telepathy, the psychic 
powers of the medium must necessarily be the measure of 
limitation. 

But, as before remarked, it is impossible to know what are 
the difficulties which beset communicators from other worlds 
than ours. One thing, however, appears to be beyond ques- 
tion, if we are to accept the testimony of spiritists, and that is 
that the spirits are as voluble as fishwives when they tell us 
something that can neither be verified nor disproved; but when 
subjected to anything like a scientific investigation their 
volubility is succeeded by a remarkable want of facility of 
clear and unequivocal expression, and they aFe troubled by a 
constantly recurring failure of "light." At critical moments 
their memory fails them, and they forget their own names 
and those of their nearest relatives. At other times, how- 
ever, they have lucid intervals, the light is clear, and they can 
give names and dates with great facility, besides giving in- 
formation that neither the psychic nor the sitters could have 
previously obtained through sensory channels. 

These are some of the salient features of the limitation and 
of the power displayed by Mrs. Piper's spirits for the benefit 
of science and Professor Hyslop. And it must not be for- 
gotten in this connection that special facilities were provided 
in his case for easy, free, and unlimited communication, with- 
out reference to the infirmities that might happen to afflict 
the particular spirits called for. To that end two great spir- 
its were imported from England to act as amanuenses and 
advisors generally. They were specially well qualified by ex- 
perience, having already acquired an international reputation 
by acting in the capacity of Familiars of the late W. Stainton 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 11 

Moses. They were good, and wise, and great; and their 
names, respectively, were "Imperator" and "Rector," — 
names well calculated to impress. That they w r ere good is 
evidenced by their uniformly pious language and deport- 
ment. That were wise is shown by their refusal to reveal 
their own identity. That they were great is demonstrated by 
the fact that they had, before emigrating to America, evolved 
a system of spiritistic philosophy that converted an English 
orthodox clergyman from the error of his ways. 

Manifestly the performance of such a feat must have re- 
quired unlimited facilities for communication, plenty of light, 
a retentive memory, and an unfailing vocabulary. And it is 
in evidence that they had all these, and much more, under 
the mediumship of Stainton Moses. But it was all in violent 
contrast with the paralytic conditions prevailing under the 
Piper-Hyslop regime. I think that spiritists will agree with 
me that the contrast is due to variant mediumistic powers, 
rather than to varying facilities for knowing things, and com- 
municating them, on the part of the same spirits. If, then, 
it is due ro the variant psychic powers of the mediums, I 
have a right to assume, provisionally, at least, that the limi- 
tations, always most in evidence when personal identity is in 
question, are the limitations of telepathy between living per- 
sons. 

This leads us to the second branch of our inquiry, namely, 
as to "the methods, powers and limitations of telepathic 
communications between living persons." 

As I promised merely to suggest in this paper the proper 
method of studying Prof. Hyslop's report from a scientific 
standpoint, I shall, in pursuing this branch of the inquiry, cite 
but a few illustrative examples showing that the successes 
and the failures of his alleged "communicators" were just 
such as are incident to telepathic communications. 

The following propositions are too well authenticated and 
understood by all intelligent psychical researchers to require 
proofs to sustain them: 

(i) Telepathy is a power belonging exclusively to the 
subjective mind, or the "subliminal self," as it is frequently 
desiginated by the S. P. R. That is to say, the objective 
mind, or "supraliminal self," which is the mind of ordinary 
waking consciousness, is not necessarily aware of the content 
of the subjective mind. Hence the phenomenon of "latent 



12 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

memory," as Sir William Hamilton designated it may years 
ago. That is, knowledge once acquired may remain latent 
in the subjective mind for an indefinite period. It may, how- 
ever, be elevated above the threshold of normal conscious- 
ness in many ways, as by automatic writing, etc., or it may be 
reached by telepathy. 

(2) Telepathic powers are best developed under abnormal 
conditions, as in trance, or in spontaneous or induced som- 
nambulism. 

(3) These powers vary in efficiency with different psychics, 
and in the same psychic they vary at different times, and 
under varying conditions which are not yet clearly defined. 

(4) Rapport is, of course, always necessary; but the essen- 
tial conditions of rapport are not yet clearly understood. It 
is known, however, that relatives and friends are either 
actually or potentially en rapport at all times. 

These fundamental facts will not be disputed; and when 
they are considered in connection with the prodigious — if not 
perfect, — memqry of the subjective mind, it will be seen that 
no limits can at present be assigned to the potentialities of 
telepathy. Its limitations, however, are more clearly defined 
and understood. Hence it is that, one who is acquainted 
with those limitations and their proximate causes, is better 
qualified to account for the failures of telepathy than any one 
can be to assign limits to its potentialities. But it so hap- 
pens that even a knowledge of the causes of failure is of great 
value in enabling one to know to what class a particular 
phenomenon belongs. 

The fundamental difficulty in telepathic communication 
consists in the fact that the power is not adapted to practical 
mundane uses. It seems,in fact.to be a means of communicat- 
ing thoughts especially adapted to a disembodied existence; 
for it is never available here except under abnormal condi- 
tions. Even under the most favorable conditions the 
thoughts communicated must be interpreted, so to speak, in 
terms of our sensory experience. That is to say, the percip- 
ient must be caused to see something (visions) or hear some- 
thing (clairaudience) that will enable her to grasp the idea 
sought to be communicated. 

It will at once be seen that the inherent difficulties of tele- 
pathic communication are great, and in the conveyance of 
abstract ideas they are practically insuperable. It is true 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 1 3 ; 

that if a psychic is clairaudient, and conditions are perfect, 
much may be conveyed in words. But clairaudience is a. 
rare faculty, and perfect conditions hard to obtain; and when 
obtained they rarely last long enough for purposes of scien- 
tific investigation. We may, therefore, confine our attention 
to the most common methods of communicating telepathic 
information, which is by causing the percipient to see visions 
that convey the idea. I shall do this, not only because 
it is the most common method, but because it is, all 
things considered, the best that has yet been devised; and 
for further reason that it is evidently the one employed in the 
Piper seances. 

It is obvious that intelligence communicated by means of 
visions must be extremely limited in scope and subject-mat- 
ter. It is, in fact, just that kind of information that can be 
conveyed, in objective life, by a series of pictures; or, at best, 
by pantomime. Anything, therefore, that can be told by a 
picture, as for instance, a tragedy, can be very clearly repro- 
duced by a good psychic, under good conditions. But ab- 
stract ideas cannot be thus represented. Symbolical visions, 
it. is true, may sometimes convey such intelligence to a very 
limited extent; but its limitations are obvious. Again, under 
favorable conditions a vision may be very distinct; but those 
conditions are subject to frequent changes, and for no assign- 
able cause; so that at one moment a psychic may be very 
lucid, and at the next be groping in the "dark.' This literally 
describes the situation when conditions fail;for telepathic vis- 
ions, when the psychic's eyes are closed, come out of the 
darkness, with varying brilliancy, when conditions are favor- 
able; and fade into it again, with varying indistinctness, when 
conditions fail. In a word, the lucidity of a telepathist is 
proportioned to the clearness of her visions ; and the clearest 
of them are often evavescent, unstable, and "variable as the 
shade." Mrs. Piper's soi disant spirits, therefore, described 
an actual want, in literal terms, when they so often com- 
plained of the failure of "light." Again, it frequently hap- 
pens that the fault is not in the psychic so much as in the 
sitter; for the clearness of a telepathic vision depends largely 
upon the power of visualization possessed by the subjective 
mind of the agent or sitter. This power varies in intensity 
in different individuals; and in the same person it fluctuates 
within very wide limits. The reasons for this are not yet 



14 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

clearlv understood; but it seems to depend upon the passivity 
of the individual. Hence it is that trained psychics make the 
best sitters or agents; for they are habitually passive at 
seances, and their subjective minds are habitually active, — 
and that mind is the source of all information in telepathy. 
On the other hand, a novice often defeats the object of a 
seance by his over-anxiety, or want of passivity, to say noth- 
ing of his lack of subliminal training. 

It should be here noted that telepathic messages cognized 
clairaudiently are subject to the same limitations of power 
and fluctuations of conditions. That is to say, a clairaudient 
psychic does not always hear clearly, any more than does a 
clairvoyant psychic always see clearly. Hence it happens 
that it either case, when conditions are imperfect or fluctuat- 
ing, proper names are difficult to perceive. Some psychics, 
however, are both clairaudient and clairvoyant, to a limited 
extent, and thus have two strings to their bow. But even 
they are subject to the same uncertain conditions and limita- 
tions, and hence cannot always be certain of proper names; 
or, for that matter, of anything else. I mention proper 
names particularly because the failures in cognizing them, by 
even the best of psychics, are frequent in so-called spirit in- 
tercourse as well as in experimental telepathy, and presum- 
ably for thesame reasons. 

One important fact remains to be noted, and that is that 
proper names, and sometimes other words, and even short 
sentences, are telepathically conveyed to clairvoyant psychics 
by means of visions of printed or written words, projected 
into the field of psychic vision. Obviously, the foregoing 
remarks relating to the varying conditions of telepathic 
lucidity, apply with peculiar force to phantasmic representa- 
tions of words or phrases, and especially of proper names. 

I have now stated a few of the salient powers and limita- 
tions of telepathy with especial reference to the difficulties 
habitually encountered in communicating intelligence by that 
means. They are among the propaedeutics of psychic 
science, without an understanding of which it is impossible to 
either appreciate the potentialities of telepathy, or to intelli- 
gently assign causes for its multiform failures and limita- 
tions. With an understanding of them we can at least 
judge, with proximate certainty, in any correctly reported 
case, whether the difficulties encountered are such as are 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 15 

incident to telepathy. If we find that they are, we have a 
right to assume telepathy to be the true explanation of the 
mvsteries, at least until it is definitely shown to be either 
inadequate, or impossible, or both. Professor Hyslop has 
essayed the task of proving that it is both inadequate and 
impossible; but to do so he assumes the existence of difficul- 
ties that do not exist except in his imagination, as I shall 
attempt to show in its proper place. 

First, however, I desire to suggest the proper method of 
analysing his report by citing a few illustrative examples, 
taken at random, showing beyond a reasonable doubt that 
telepathy affords an explanation of all the phenomena he de- 
scribes. In doing so I shall assume, provisionally, that all 
the supernormally acquired information possessed by the 
medium existed, latent, in the subjective mind of the sitter. 
How so much of it got there is a question second to none in 
importance; but it must be deferred for the moment. 

The first point to which I wish to invite attention relates to 
proper names. Those who have read the report (S. P. R. 
Proc. part XLI. Vol. XVI.) will remember the constant 
alternation of lucidity and amnesia on the part of somebody, 
— spirits or Mrs. Piper's 'subliminal — when the names of 
alleged communicators were called for. Often the name 
would be given with gratifying promptitude; but at other 
times — when the "light" failed — there would be groping, 
guess-work, "fishing" for clues, and sometimes total failure, 
followed by very voluble explanations that did not explain. 
Time and space forbids the citation of special examples; but 
they confront us almost everywhere in the report. Prof. 
Hyslop tells us that it is all due to the limitations of spirit 
power, first to remember the simplest facts of mundane exper- 
ience, and, secondly,to communicate that knowledge through 
the best of mediums. Of these limitations we can know 
nothing, of course, except what Prof. Hyslop tells us. But, 
how does he know? He also informs us that the trouble h 
not due to the limitations of telepathy, because telepathy has 
no limitations. That is to say, he holds that the phenomena 
in question cannot be due to telepathy if telepathic knowledge 
is not "infinite," or "omniscient," — which is a very easy,if not 
a logical, way of disposing of a difficulty. Of this, later on. 

Nevertheless, anyone who knows anything at all of tele- 
pathy is aware that it is hedged about by just such difficulties 



16 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

in regard to names as were encountered in the Piper-Hyslop 
seances. Moreover, to suppose that those difficulties were 
due to the mental status of the spirits themselves, involves 
implications of degeneracy not warranted by current sprit- 
istic philosophy. 

Again, there are many other phenomena detailed in the 
report which point clearly, — almost demonstrably, — to tele* 
pathy; as, for instance, when the medium — or the soi disant 
spirit — undertook to state the disease of which he, or some- 
one else, died. In one instance it was incorrectly stated as 
typhoid fever; and in another it was correctly stated as throat 
disease. Obviously, typhoid fever could not well be repre- 
sented by a phantasm, but a sore throat could be easily repre- 
sented by a vision of a person with a bandaged throat. 

Much stress has been laid upon the fact that a certain jack- 
knife, belonging to Prof. Hyslop's father, was correctly de- 
scribed, together with some of the uses for which it was em- 
ployed during its late owner's lifetime, such as paring his 
nails, etc. I submit that it is not difficult to imagine the pro- 
jection of a phantasmic jack-knife upon Mrs. Piper's field of 
psychic vision; nor would it seem to be difficult to guess at 
some of its uses, even without the aid of a phantasm. 

Again,much of evidential value is attached, by Prof. Hyslop, 
to the fact that Mrs. Piper correctly described a skull-cap 
once worn by his father; but the name of the person with 
whom it was left was difficult to obtain. This very clearly 
illustrates the foregoing remarks relating to the comparative 
difficulty in obtaining names by telepathy. 

I might cite many more examples of a similar character. — 
but time and space forbid. But they will serve to suggest to 
the student the proper method of analyzing the Piper 
phenomena as reported by Prof. Hyslop. All that is neces- 
sary is to bear in mind the methods of telepathy and its con- 
sequent limitations. When this rule is intelligently observed 
there will be found no difficulty in the telepathic explanation 
of all that seems so mysterious to Professor Hyslop. 

As before remarked, I have thus far assumed that all the 
supernormally acquired knowledge of which Mrs. Piper was 
possessed, was not only obtained telepathically, but that it 
was obtained directly from the subjective mind of Professor 
Hyslop. This the Teamed Doctor would strenuously deny, 
on the ground that the great bulk of the information upon 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 17 

which he relies to prove his case for spiritism, was never 
known to him before he obtained it from Mrs. Piper, — but 
was, however, subsequently verified. And I freely admit that 
neither Professor Hyslop nor any other person present at the 
Piper-Hyslop seances was ever in conscious possession of 
any of the facts revealed by the trance personality of the 
medium, prior to the date of the seances. 

The question now arises, — and this is the crucial question 
for spiritism, — how did Mrs. Piper obtain that wonderful 
fund of information which she so haltingly gave out at those 
famous seances? 

Before attempting to answer this question from my own 
point of view I will state the position of Professor Hyslop. 

To do entire justice to the intelligence of the learned Pro- 
fessor, he does not seriously deny the fact of the existence of 
telepathy as a possible factor in some cases. On the other 
hand, however, he holds that spiritism is the preferable 
hypothesis for the explanation of the Piper phenomena, for 
the reason that the telepathic theory necessarily presupposes 
"infinite knowledge" on the part of the psychic. It is, there- 
fore, in his mind, "spiritism against omniscience," (page 134). 
No wonder that he "halts" on page I33,and becomes "suspic- 
ious" on page 136, and actually "gasps" on the same page 
"at the magnitude o'f the theories that are invented to sustain 
the case against spiritism." And well may skeptical science 
also "gasp," not to say, "throw up the sponge," if it has at 
last come to pass that the hypothesis .of superstition can be 
disproved by no other argument than one that is based upon 
the presupposition that Mrs. Piper is "omniscient." 

To do Professor Hyslop justice it must be said that he did 
not invent the theory. That he believes it, or thinks he does, 
is evinced by his constant reiteration of it; but he manages 
to throw the blame of it upon Dr. Hodgson. (p. 157.) In 
defense of Dr. Hodgson it should be stated that he is not 
wholly responsible; for Dr. Bovee Dods, in one of his lec- 
tures, gave utterance to a similar extravagance when under- 
taking to account for the supernormally acquired knowledge 
of his mesmeric subjects. (See his lectures on spiritism, pp 
83-4). To his credit be it said, however, that his extravagant 
notions did not extend to implications of omniscience; and in 
further extenuation it must be remembered that he wrote 
fifty years ago, and knew nothing of the later development of 



.18 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

•experimental psychology. Nevertheless, he did develop 
.telepathy in his subjects to such an extent that they came 
into possession of knowledge of facts not previously known 
to any one present. But, how to account for the fact, he 
knew neither more nor less than do the ablest spiritists of the 
S. P. R. spiritistic propaganda. He did know, however, that 
-spirits of the dead had nothing to do with it. 

The question now is, is it necessary to suppose that Mrs. 
Tiper was possessed of "infinite knowledge" in order to ac- 
count for her possession of information not previously exist- 
ent in the normal consciousness of any one present? Is it 
necessary to suppose that she is either actually or potentially 
in communication with the "whole Universe of intelligence'' 
in order to account for the facts? Is it even necessary to 
suppose that she was in telepathic communication with any 
• one on earth, or in Heaven above, besides Professor Hyslop? 
I think not. 

It seems to me that it is only necessary to suppose that 
Professor Hyslop was en rapport with the members of his 
own family, in order to account for his possession, sublimin- 
ally, of all the knowledge that was in evidence at the Piper 
seances. Certainly there is nothing in the history of tele- 
pathic investigation to negative this proposition. Indeed, it 
may be confidentially asserted that if observation and exper- 
ience teaches us anything at all in reference to that myster- 
ious power, it is that relatives and friends are always en rap- 
port, and that they are always either actually or potentially, in 
communication. This is, perhaps, the most important induc- 
tion possible in the case, and it certainly makes for the 
telepathic theory; for all of the "communicators," of evident- 
ial importance, were relatives of the sitter. But as yet we 
know little of the power of telepathic acquisition of knowl- 
edge; but all that we do know goes to show that it is enorm- 
ous. The limitations apparently pertain wholly to the power 
of communicating the acquired intelligence, as I have already 
shown. It is also known that the great bulk of subliminal 
intelligence remains latent, indefinitely, and is never, except 
tinder abnormal conditions, elevated above the threshold of 
normal consciousness. It is also in evidence that subliminal 
memory is prodigious, — potentially, if not actually, perfect; 
so that what once enters that storehouse of memory is 
always available under favorable conditions. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 19 

These are a few of the inductions of modern psychological 
science pertinent in this case; and it cannot be successfully 
controverted that they afford a full explanation of the fact 
that the knowledge which Mrs. Piper obtained existed in the 
subjective mind of her sitter. I submit that it is a far call 
between ''omniscience" and the conclusions derivable from 
the fundamental facts of psychic science. 

The only question now remaining is whether the knowl- 
edge which, presumably, was thus telepathically acquired, 
was conveyed by the same means to Mrs. Piper's subliminal 
consciousness. 

This is the issue which Professor Hyslop has seen fit to 
utterly ignore. And yet it is really the only pertinent issue 
in the case. To reduce it to its lowest terms, it is this: 

Can information, telepathically acquired, be telepathically 
transmitted to a third person? 

If it can, spiritism, considered as a scientific proposition, 
has not a leg to stand upon; for not a case has yet been re- 
corded that cannot be telepathically explained if that simple 
proposition is true. There may be cases where the chain of 
telepathic transmission is difficult to trace. But so momen- 
tous a propsition as spiritism embraces cannot be logically 
sustained by an occasional failure of positive evidence 
against it. There are no logical presumptions in favor of a 
supermundane explanation of any phenomenon whatever. 
Indeed, the presumptions are all against it, even in the 
absence of evidence to disprove it; and when, as in this case, 
the great bulk of cognate phenomena are explicable by refer- 
ence to known mundane causes,all supermundane hypotheses 
are summarily ejected from the court of logical inquiry. 

The question, then, recurs, — "can telepathically acquired 
information be telepathically transmitted to a third person?" 
My proposition is this: A message transmitted from A to B, 
by any means of communicating human intelligence, can be 
transmitted, conditions being equal, from B to C by the same 
means. 
If not, why not? 

This is a very simple proposition, and its truth is self-evi- 
dent. It is what Herbert Spencer wold denominate a "univer- 
sal postulate;" for "its opposite is inconceivable"— unthink- 
able. Besides, it has been demonstrated, again and again, by 



20 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

experimental telepathy, that telepathy by three, or as the 
French call it, "telepathic a trois," is not only a possible, but 
a very common, phenomenon. 

There is nothing left, therefore, for spiritism to do but to 
deny a self-evident proposition, for, if it is true, the tele-i 
pathic hypothesis covers, not only every case cited by Pro- 
fessor Hyslop, but every case within the range of human 
conception. 

In conclusion, I beg leave to say one word to both the 
friends and the foes of spiritism, in commendation of Pro- 
fessor Hyslop's report. The former will find it to be the 
ablest effort yet made to give spiritism a scientific status. 
If he has failed it is not for lack of zeal or ability. The lat- 
ter will find in it a transparently honest report of the details 
of each seance. This is all that science can ask of a reporter 
of phenomena. It will take care of its own conclusions. If 
the internal 'evidence of the report overwhelmingly defeats 
the object of his argument, Professor Hyslop has not conceal- 
ed the fact. Considered from any point of view — as a lit- 
erary production, as a defense of spiritism, as an honest re- 
port of facts, or as an effort to obscure the vital issues in- 
volved, it is the ablest spiritistic document extant. 




JOHN DUNCAN QVACKENBOS, M. D. 
OF NEW YORK CITY. 



THE MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP IN HYPNOTISM, 

AND ITS BEARING ON TELEPATHIC AND 

SPIRITISTIC COMMUNICATION. 



BY DR. JOHN DUNCAN QUACKENBOS, OF NEW YORK CITY. 



Mr. Chairman, Members of the Medico-Legal Society — Sec- 
tion on Psychology: 

You have asked me, through your honored President, Dr. 
Clark Bell, to express an opinion this evening regarding the 
nature of the communications reported in the proceedings of 
the Society for Psychical Research (Part XLI.) as having 
been received by Professor James H. Hyslop, of Columbia 
University, from Mrs. Piper, the spiritistic medium. It has 
occurred to me that an appropriate prelude to the inference 
which I shall draw might consist in a statement of the re- 
lationship apprehended by me to exist between the mind of 
an hypnotic operator and the subjective personality of the 
individual operated upon, through which relationship the 
minds in rapport are obnoxious to mutual impression. The 
conclusions which I have reached along this line of recipro- 
cal communication are derived from some two thousand sev- 
eral experiences with hypnotized patients. These subjects 
sought my aid for almost every conceivable malady, mental 
and moral; some for ethico-spiritual, many for literary or 
dramatic inspiration. I have thus been brought into closest 
touch with the human soul, first objectively; subsequently, 
in the realm of subliminal life, where, practically liberated in 
the hypnotic slumber from its entanglement with a perish- 
able body it has been open to approach by the objective 
mind in which it elected to confide, dynamically absorptive of 
creative stimulation by that mind, and lavish in dispensing 
to the personality in rapport the suddenly apprehended riches 
of its own higher spiritual nature. 

To a recent inquiry as to how it was possible for him to 
engage without injury to his physical and mental health so 

Read before the Medico-Legal Society, Psychological Section, December 
18,1901. 



22 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

unremittingly in his work as a suggestionist — a work that 
implies concentrated intellectual effort and is daily prosecut- 
ed on an average from 9 a. m. until midnight — the author of 
this paper made the reply: "Because I get something back 
from my patients; otherwise, I should be a nervous bank- 
rupt." It is my purpose this evening to investigate the hyp- 
notic procedure with a view to ascertaining what it is that 
the hypnotist who throws his soul into his work may receive 
in return from his subject; to offer a philosophical explana- 
tion of the spiritual exosmose and endosmose. Much has 
been written of the action of the operator and the passion 
of the subject. It is always what a suggestionist is doing to 
his mesmerizee, never what the mesmerizee is doing to his 
suggestionist. But the patient is as active subliminally as is 
the operator objectively; and the operator, where genuine 
rapport is established, realizes this activity. 

It may be well for me to state at the outset that I under- 
stand hypnotic suggestion to be of the nature of inspiration; 
and the result of it is assumption of control either where con- 
trol is relaxed or in fields where it has not before been exer- 
cised. Hypnotic suggestion is a summoning into ascend- 
ency of the true man; an accentuation of insight into life and 
its procedures; a revealing, in all its beauty and strength 
and significance, of absolute, universal, and necessary truth; 
and a portraiture of happiness as the assured outcome of 
living in consonance with this truth. It is not a mere pulling 
up of weeds by the roots as Horace Fletcher describes it in 
"Menticulture": but it is a sudden overshadowing and starv- 
ing out of character defects and mental weaknesses by a 
tropical growth of ethical energy which seeks immediate 
outlet in the activities of a moral life. The patient freely 
expresses his best self post-hypnotically, without effort, 
from a plane above that of the will — the plane of apprehen- 
sion and of spontaneous command along lines of thought 
and action that are high and true. Thus is effected a per- 
fect agreement between the law of right and the intelligent 
creature. 

Such inspiration cannot be mere lip-work or rote-lesson. 
It implies a sincere belief in the suggestions offered; control 
by lofty, inflexible principles: an eloquent and incisive man- 
ner born of the courage of conviction: in short, it is a trans- 
fusion of personality. Perfunctory speeches are of no avail, 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 23 T ' 

for the mind of the mesmerizee is endowed with supranormal 
insight, instantaneously detects the disingenuous, and re- 
jects the counsel of an uncandid or lukewarm guide. 

The wear and tear of a continuous service in practical 
hypnotics, covering not only all phases of abnormal mental 
and moral attitudes, but involving as well inspirational work 
of the most difhcult kind, is certainly out of the ordinary;, 
the rapid recovery therefrom is phenomenal. There are 
grades of depression, time differences as regards the re-es- 
tablishment of the operator's nervous balance, and degrees 
of subsequent uplift. Some patients are more exhausting; 
than others, some mysteriously exalt, many are seemingly/ 
negative, all who in sincerity and faith seek moral or intel- 
lectual aid through hypnotic channels, in some way, immedi- 
ately or remotely, refresh, exhilarate and nerve the mind that 
offers it. There is a more marked return in ethico-spiritual 
than in intellectual inspiration; little reciprocal benefit at- 
tends the treatment of mere physical conditions. Persons 
suffering from moral perversions and remorse consume more 
than the average amount of nervous energy, perhaps because 
they need a more generous quota of help. In certain instan- 
stances it would seem as if the sufferer secured relief by cast- 
ing upon the physician the whole burden of his imperative 
conception, self reproach, remorse, worry or fear. It may 
require hours or even days for one who extends aid subject- 
ively to lift from his soul the dead weight of such an imposi- 
tion. Coarse natures are especially trying; while refined 
minds ennoble and exalt from the earliest moment of con- 
tact. The more spiritual the work, the more marked the 
ascent, and the greater the consequent indifference of the op- 
erator to all worldly or purely material considerations. One 
seems sustained upon a higher plane where neither thought, 
nor passion, nor volition can intrude to ruffle the serene sur- 
face of his soul. 

Some twelve months ago, in the up-rush of a violent nerve 
storm centering in a series of vicious assaults upon my integ- 
rity, there came into my life a spiritually-minded patient 
with the following request: "My deepest desire is consciously 
to realize my oneness with the Infinite God of Love. Im- 
press upon me, as I sleep, the conviction that I have within 
me forces which, if I could but recognize them,would lift me 
to higher levels and open my soul to the illapse divine. Put 



24 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

into operation these spiritual powers, that I may lose myselx 
in an acceptable service to others, and therein taste the per- 
fect fruits of faith, aspiration, and love." Whereas I make 
no pretense to such power as would be implied in a literal 
response to the longings of this soul, and so explained my po- 
sition to the petitioner, I do believe that by presentation of 
sovereign truth below the threshold of consciousness — that 
is, subliminal presentation — a soul may be made a hundred 
fold more intensely receptive than through mere objective 
exhortation. On this principle, I put the lady into a sug- 
gestible mind state, and as the inspiration proceeded, I felt 
myself elevated above the plane of the material and the tran- 
sient, placed out of reach of worry thought and misgiving, 
and rendered incapable of irritation by the ingeniously con- 
trived annoyances that had disturbed me hitherto. I real- 
ized a potency within me that was in every way adequate to 
the occasion; I became insensible to accusation and insult, I 
was made immune to the toxin of resentment. Association 
with pure souls in the realm of the subliminal has repeatedly 
proved similarly cheering and uplifting. Such uplift is to be 
-carefully distinguished from the sense of self-congratulation 
that attends the doing of a kindness — from the gratification 
of that lively disinterested feeling which is a part of our an- 
imal nature, and which forever prompts us to make ourselves 
happy by making others happy first. It is marked by a pe- 
culiar erethismic thrill or shock, which would seem to accom- 
pany the touch of a soul. The inspiring suggestion blesses 
him that gives as well as him that takes. 

But one must enter the ethico-spiritual field to experience 
the exaltation described in its perfection. In pure intellect- 
ual inspiration, in higher hypno-pedagogics, for instance, in- 
volving the exhibition to a sleeping subject of potential en- 
dowment and the post-hypnotic spontaneous expression of 
such endowment in the objective lifer— there is uplift of a dif- 
ferent nature, similar, though specifically superior to the sat- 
isfaction accompanying felicitous objective instruction, per- 
suasion or inspiration. The qualifying of a college student's 
subliminal for a rigid examination: the symmetrical develop- 
ment of unbalanced mental faculties into harmoniously act- 
ing forces; the equipment of a talented woman for author- 
ship or the stage — bring different degrees of intellectual com- 
pensation. In the creative communication that evolves a 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 25 

;great actress, spiritual chords may be set in vibration as the 
true aim of dramatic art is pictured to be, not the mere rep- 
resentation of passion in itself, but of passion that leads to 
meritorious action — when tragedy is conceived of as poetry 
in its deepest earnest, and poetry as beauty plus spir- 
ituality. In the case of an actress inspired by me within the 
year and risen at a single bound to fame and fortune, the line 
of suggestion was as follows : 

''You are now in a position to realize your talent and your 
power over its expression; and you are going on the stage 
in January — free from all agitation, having grasped in full 
the dramatic idea of the play whose heroine you are and con- 
fident in your own interpretation of the character of . 

Your acting throughout will be consistent with this interpre- 
tation, sincere and natural in its tone. You will know intui- 
itively where the touch of nervousness is required to express 
the assumed emotion, when to affect a look of despair,how to 
manage the quick transition from real fright to apparent in- 
nocence. Your acting will be without artificiality, false to 
fact, but true to faith, your own conception. Realizing the 
efficiency within you, your whole being instinct with an in- 
tense vitality, you will naturally and unconstrainedly cast in- 
to your art all the magic that fascinates, all the control that 
holds an audience from first to last — your self-possession re- 
tained, but your self-consciousness all but submerged in your 
impersonation. So doing, you will impress without effort 
those who witness your acting with your masterly portrait- 
tire, with the superior quality of your representation, your 
truthfulness to nature, your heavy-handed realism. And you 
will be your own best automatic critic through it all, so con- 
fident in your talent and your spontaneous control over its 
utterance, that you will realize your elevation to a plane 
above necessity for sympathy from your audience. You 
have arisen in all the strength and fearlessness and majesty 
of your womanhood, and in all the glory of your genius, to 
assert yourself, and you can stand, if need be, unabashed be- 
fore the world." 

This gave the lady immediate insight into her endowment, 
with confidence in its expression, and she went before the 
footlights a consummate mistress of her art, to be curtained 
many times throughout the winter after the climax of the 
play. 



26 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

To achieve this result, the lady in question was brought to 
a full realization of herself in her higher relationships; and 
wherever this is accomplished by the suggestionist, there is 
sure to be spiritual indemnification for the energy expended 
in awakening apprehension of the self at its best. 

The reciprocal influence implied in hypnotic rapport is ex- 
plicable on the principle of action and reaction, the third 
law of Sir Isaac Newton, viz: "To every action there is al- 
ways an equal contrary reaction; a given body cannot press 
or attract another body without being itself pressed or at- 
tracted with equal force in an opposite direction." To car- 
ry this natural law into the world spiritual, no soul can im- 
press another soul or personal intelligence without being re- 
ciprocally impressed. A soul errant in rapport experiences 
during the hour of impact with the mind of a pure-hearted 
suggestionist, a change in the direction of its aspirations or 
spiritual motions, and its total ethical energy is made actual. 
To the soul of the operator that stooped to point a way of es- 
cape to the sin-burdened spirit of the mesmerizee, is imparted 
a contrary upward motion and it rises to the heights of ap- 
prehension, spiritual insight and spontaneous yet absolute in- 
tellectual command. But in its ascent, it is not companion- 
less; the emancipated soul is a factor in the rebound. To- 
gether the associated spirits enter the realm of pure mind 
life — the guiding spirit freed, by the intensity of its abstrac- 
tion, from consciousness of a material environment; the spirit 
in rapport endowed, as incident to its subliminal state, with 
preternatural perception and thus become sensible of its 
measureless power over matter, its control of the vital func- 
tions of its objective body, as well as of its own intellectual 
attitudes and trends of thought. It realizes to the full the 
inherent dignity and worth of its higher nature, and discerns 
within itself a spiritual efficiency commensurate to its needs, 
whatever they may be — a power in reserve through the oper- 
ation of which it may successfully parry the lance thrusts 
of disappointment, still the voice of remorse, quench the fires 
of passion, and break the clutch of crime. In the light of 
such apprehension, the so-designated heaven-left soul confi- 
dently assumes command of the forces conferred by its Cre- 
ator for exploitation, and through the free and unconstrained 
operation of these natural forces, the objective life is spirit- 
ualized. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 27' 

Ideal hypnotism thus implies on the part of one personality 
an expenditure of spiritual energy which, under the universal 
law of the conservation of force, cannot be destroyed, but 
which instantly materializes as ethical activity in the person- 
ality that is inspired. The energy that seemingly disappeared 
is transformed into a spiritual heat which warms the soul 
that kindled it, and creates reciprocally in that soul its full 
dynamic equivalent. If it be true that there are no forces in 
nature to which the law of energy does not apply, we have 
in this law an explanation of the reciprocal uplift in hypno- 
tism, and we have in the fact itself an indicated way in which 
the souls of men may draw nearer to one another. 

Do all persons who hypnotize other persons consciously 
receive from their subjects this lavish return for their invest- 
ment of energy? Or are special qualifications required in 
the hypnotist? And if so liberal a dividend is assured, why 
should not all high-minded persons resort to hypnotism as a 
means of accentuating their own general receptivity and ad- 
ding to their magnitude as moral stars? It were, indeed, a 
pity that the great mass of enlightened men and women who 
are striving for self-improvement or for the elevation of 
their kind should be debarred, through ignorance of its very 
existence, from so promising a field for their labors. The 
majority of hypnotists do mere perfunctory work; they do not 
sound the depths of the soul they seek to aid. There is a 
mere passing contact, a cold injunction to abandon demoral- 
izing practice or secret sin; there is no outpour of sympathy, 
no encouragement of the stricken spirit to unbreast its woes. 
With what measure the hypnotist metes, it is measured to 
him again. If he be not an earnest and sincere believer in 
his suggestions; if he sees not a brother in the evil-doer; it 
he withholds that best gift one can offer to his neighbor, viz: 
himself — he can expect no return from the soul he addresses. 
A mesmerizee instinctively penetrates the veneer of indiffer- 
ence or deception, and revolts against rapport that is sought 
for selfish or sordid purposes. Further, the human soul de- 
lights in a realization of its own power, and responds sublime- 
ly to him who, in harmony with Paul, holds up before 'its 
subliminal vision that spiritual potency conferred on it by 
God as the means of accomplishing lofty purpose, as the way 
of escape (ekbasis) from temptation (i Cor. x:3). The doc- 
trine of the utter helplessness of man which is harped on so 



28 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

persistently by certain creeds, and which has for centuries 
unsouled the Christian, is taught neither by Jesus nor Paul. 
God does not turn out mere salework. He does not create 
souls without good in them; without power in themselves to 
help themselves — a mistaken philosophy which every blade 
of grass controverts, every sun, every diatom. The maxi- 
mum efficiency of the human machine is illustrated in the life 
history of Job, that one conspicuous embodiment of purely 
human feeling and faith and potency at their best. The same 
spiritual energy that gave Job his victory, is potential in every 
human unit. There is no soul in which God is not; and what 
God hates is therefore intuitively hated by the human image 
of God, the superior spiritual self. Objective man is often sin- 
loving; subjective man is ever sin-hating. One fool hath 
said in his heart, "There is no God;" another fool, 'There 
is no God in man" — and yet the Spirit beareth witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. VIII.). It 
is this spirit of ours, the pure pneuma, that deathless principle 
which dictates what is right, and whose attitude toward sin 
is by force of its very birth, one of repugnance and horror — 
it is this spirit that lusteth against the flesh, — all vicious ap- 
petites, wrong impulses, unmanly practices. So no sin-living 
man in the abstract is morally indifferent. He may smother 
his sensibility for a time, but he will always revolt and as- 
sert his manhood objectively when subliminally shamed into 
an apprehension of the blot upon his dignity as a man. In 
the conduct of his revolt, he is under obligation to make a 
competent use of the efficiency within him in an expression 
of willingness, perseverance, patience and moral energy, be- 
fore appealing to the throne of grace. To the personality 
that apprises an apparently helpless soul of its own intellec- 
tual a'nd moral powers and makes plain the possibility of con- 
quest through self-help — the truth an enfamined world 
craves to-day — that soul flows out in a great tidal wave of 
recognition, gratitude and reciprocal stimulation. And the 
possibility of asserting a slumbering intellectual courage that 
clearly discerns, and a moral courage that grandly under- 
crests, is open to all who have lost sight of the god-like in 
their own lives. This is optimism at its climax, this making 
the man acquainted with himself. 

Another fact — the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, aspirations 
and moral status of a suggestionist are undesignedly com- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY.^ 29' 

municated most vividly to the subject, whose mind becomes 
mysteriously tuned in unison with that of the operator. I 
have been startled by hearing patients tell me days after hyp- 
notization of feelings and incentives to action, of which I had 
suggested nothing but which I knew to be in the background 
of my consciousness at the time of treatment. An actress 
whom I was inspiring with confidence and preparing for her 
part, assured me a week after treatment that she had exper- 
ienced a remarkable change in her disposition and her atti- 
tude as regards the purity of the stage. She would not en- 
tertain a propositition from a manager whose plays verged 
on the vulgar, and her .newly adopted ideals were so exactly 
in conformity with my own that there could be no question 
regarding their source. In like manner, I have inadvertent- 
ly communicated my love of nature and her wild life, my aes- 
thetic sensibility, my facility with the pen, and even my faith. 
As one patient expressed it, "Your thoughts become my 
thoughts." The time has indeed come, as Maeterlinck pre- 
dicted it would, when souls may know of each other without 
the intermediary of the senses. We have within us an im- 
material principle entirely independent of sense organs and 
sense acquisitions. Its pinion is not reconciled to earth. It 
represents a flight above the temporal, and hints of Heaven. 

What light, if any, do these facts cast upon the principles 
of telepathic communication? The laws that govern such 
intercourse, the question as to the extent of its prevalence 
among the living, and its possible extension into the world of 
the dead, are of supreme concern to humanity. The fact 
that minds brought into hypnotic contact through the approx- 
imation of the physical bodies they tenant, can exchange 
thoughts, feelings, ideas, knowledge, convictions, suggests 
the possibility that minds temporarily separated and to all 
purpose discarnate in natural sleep or in hypnosis, or even 
in states of reverie — subliminal selfs free to traverse the world 
and its purlieus — may communicate without reference to 
space limitations, and are mutually impressed, exalted and 
refined. 

Subliminal minds would seem to be attracted automatically 
i. To their complements, each the other to strengthen, to in- 
struct, to inspire; and 2. As mere almoners to other minds 
in need of help. Were the means of establishing such com- 
munication comprehended and under control, deliberate ab- 



-30 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

sent treatment for functional sickness or moral defect would 
be possible and in every way scientific. 

Telepathy is the direct communication of one mind with 
another, at a distance, otherwise than through the normal op- 
eration of the recognized sense organs — that is, without the 
use of words, sounds, odors, looks, gestures or other mater- 
ial signs. It is a form of mystic perception and impression 
which inheres in animal nature and characterizes certain 
methods of brute communication. Recent experiments have 
proved moths and other insects to be capable of thought 
transference so far-reaching as to impress their fellows miles 
away with a knowledge of their existence and whereabouts. 
It is well known to whalers that a cetacean struck by a har- 
poon has power instantly to convey information of the pres- 
ence of an enemy to a spouting school a mile distant, so that 
the individuals composing it immediately disappear below the 
surface. Every angler is aware that if one trout in a pool 
becomes conscious of his presence, the most deftly cast flies 
fall unheeded on the ripples. Some twelve years ago, the 
late Austin Corbin purchased 25,000 acres of farm and wood- 
land in Sullivan County N. H., and stocked the estate liber- 
;ally with cervidae. In 1897, it was predicted that the ex- 
tinct carnivores whose natural food is venison would return 
to the region. Recently, Austin Corbin, Jr. reported the 
presence of a family of pumas, or mountain lions, in the Park, 
and other observers have discovered the lynx (both rufus and 
canadensis) in evidence. By what mysterious power of cog- 
nition did the great cat, a century vanished from this region, 
become aware of the presence of deer and elk in Blue Moun- 
tain Park? I suggest the theory of a telepathic communica- 
tion — the radiation of subtle waves of cognizance from the 
mass of fear entertained for their traditional enemies by a 
community of 4000 animals of the deer tribe, to fugitive pan- 
thers in the Alleghanies or in remote areas of the Green and 
Adirondack Mountains. Similarly, intimations of intended 
movements having in view either my injury or my advan- 
tage, are frequently conveyed to me. I feel the thing in the 
air. If brutes possess this inscrutable power of communi- 
cation, and exercise it for their benefit, it cannot seem mar- 
velous that a professional trance-medium, in perfect training, 
should be able to project her subliminal indiscriminately or 
with method in her ecstasy, force her way subjectively into 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 31 

the penetralia of selected human minds, and so possess her- 
self of information calculated to confuse, deceive, or other- 
wise impress her investigators. For has such a medium 
ever revealed anything that did not exist either in her own 
consciousness, or in the consciousness of some person pres- 
ent, or in the consciousness of some living human being not 
present at the seance? And yet I do not deny the possibility 
of impression by extra-human intelligences. Whence come 
the beautiful and practical thoughts that possess us as we 
sleep and clamor for utterance at the moment of our awak- 
ing, "the thoughts ye cannot stay with brazen chains." 
Granted, during the hours of rest, symposiums of kindred 
subliminal spirits having interests in common and free to 
combine and inter-penetrate, granted on such occasions un- 
restricted access on the part of every soul to the knowledge 
and experience and impulses and ideals cherished by every 
other soul, and thought impression during states of sleep is 
rationally explained through creative communication. The 
Gospel teaches the communion of saints, the spiritual fellow- 
ship, mystically in and through Jesus Christ, of all believers, 
dead as well as living, who are united in the Holy Catholic 
Church. But mystical communion does not necessarily im- 
ply communication between the living and the dead. The 
teaching of the New Testament as to the possibility of inter- 
- course between embodied souls and discarnate spirits is neg- 
ative; but it positively affirms the possibility of subliminal 
communication between uncarnate spirits and embodied 
souls. Intelligences not human, ill-wishing and well-wishing, 
would appear to . influence man, and the modus impressendi 
must involve action on a receptive subliminal consciousness. 
In my higher work, I have at times felt myself seemingly 
thwarted by an intervening intelligence that opposed the 
strongest influence I could exert and for a time renderd fut- 
ile all efforts at hypnotization. I may instance the case of 
Susie G, a bright little girl seven years of age, who was 
brought to me to be treated for an abuse taught in infancy by 
a nurse. The child realized that she was doing wrong and 
was desirous of cure; she trusted me implicitly, cheerfully 
came to my office, and had perfect faith in my ability to save 
her. She would enter the first stage of hypnosis with her 
hand confidingly in mine and her arm about my neck, when 
suddenly the trustful childish expression would desert her 



32 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

face and she would glare at me with a sullen, defiant, hunted 
look like an abandoned woman taken red-hand in the com- 
mission of a crime. For the nonce, further attempt to hyp- 
notize failed. The revulsion was painful to me, and must 
have been to this unfortunate child. She described the inter- 
posing influence as that of Satan, who, she naively said, told 
her not to go to sleep for me, who regularly tempted her to 
do herself wrong, and whom, as she grew stronger, she was 
accustomed to refer to an adjoining house for a more promis- 
ing victim. The alternative here is between an outside ill- 
wishing personality too strong for the simple child-nature,, 
and a part of Susie's own personality. I have never seen 
anything so suggestive of possession in the cases of multiplex 
personality that have come under my own observation, al- 
though in a number of sexual perverts who have subjectively 
resisted hypnotism, something similar has seemed to occur. 
After three months, this interesting girl was brought to me 
again for treatment, and I easily succeeded in putting her in- 
to a placid and trustful sleep in which the redemptory sug- 
gestions were given without interruption. If the efforts at 
rescue were thwarted in the first instance by the intervention 
of a daimon, my subsequent success would seem to imply 
that extra-human intelligences may be as fugitive in their en- 
deavors to deprave or ennoble, as are other intelligences 
clothed with human bodies. 

The difficulty of discriminating is such a case as Susie's 
between an ill-wishing spiritual intruder and a separate per- 
sonality of the individual under treatment, is obvious. Xo 
room for doubt exists in the case of Natalie YV., another pa- 
tient who passes daily from one personality to another with- 
out appreciable cause. In consequence of a nervous shock 
received in her eighth year, during convalescence from fever, 
the mind of Natalie W. remained a child's mind, while she 
gradually developed into physical womanhood in the thirty 
years that followed. In one personality she repeats aloud 
the petitions of the Prayer Book continuously for six hours, 
being constantly interrupted by the other personality whom 
she styles Miss W., and peremptorily orders out of her pres- 
ence with emphatic gestures. In one personality, she is af- 
fectionate, confiding and tractable; in the other, she is cun- 
ning, suspicious and difficult to control. In one personality, 
this child woman loves me; in the other, she fears me. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 33 

Her mother believes her to be possessed. The psychology 
of this case of alternating personality is, however, clear. 

But whether or not uncarnate daimons communicate 
through the instrumentality of suggestion, and whether or 
not disembodied souls reach, via the channel of the related 
selfs, those of us who are still in the flesh — one fact the writ- 
er regards as established by his experiments, viz: A Rational 
and Dignified Way is Open for Such Spiritual Communica- 
tion Every Time We Lose Ourselves in Slumber, for There 
is no Difference as Regards Suggestibility Between Natural 
Sleep and the So-called Hypnotic Trance. In the latter, 
the sleeper is in rapport exclusively with the person who has 
induced the state; in the former, he may be in rapport with 
his own objective self, perhaps with a multitude of discarnate 
personalities who think and feel in common with him, and in 
case he be of superior parts, possibly with all well-wishing 
daimons. Iamblichus, the Neoplatonic philosopher, was 
right when he proclaimed the night-time of the body to be 
the day-time of the soul. The impressing outside personality, 
if it be operative at all, operates through the double conscious- 
ness fused in the single human mind, the superior spiritual 
self being obnoxious to the insinuation of a belief, impulse or 
thought, which may dominate the objective life. Spiritistic 
communication on this principle, implies a plane of meeting 
infinitely higher than that of the common seance, where soul 
and daimon are supposed to communicate through the mind of 
an entranced medium who chatters a confused mass of triv- 
ialities and irrelevancies. The human soul intuitively abhors 
an intermediary. In this life, the climax of soul communion 
is reached in the mutual embrace of the physical bodies — im- 
mediate relationship alone is acceptable and satisfactory. So 
if there be impression by disembodied souls, that impression, 
in the opinion of the speaker, is direct. The idea of inter- 
course with the dead through the machinery of the seance is 
repugnant to reason. Aside from the fact that if the com- 
munications be accepted as messages from the souls of the 
righteous dead, such a belief cannot be reconciled with an 
exalted conception of the powers of disembodied spirits, we 
are confronted with the equally significant fact that the intel- 
lectual status of all circles is low and disappointing. 

Every hour of natural sleep is prolific of opportunity for 
communication with the departed, and who knows that it 



34 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

does not take place? It were pleasant to feel that a contin- 
gent of our better thoughts is inspired by those we have loved, 
who when they appear in visions we remember, always ap- 
pear as living, and thinking, and acting personalities. Perhaps 
there is in this latter fact a suggestion of that immortality 
which psychic vision and psychic audition incontestably prove 
in that they illustrate the power of the soul to operate as a 
discarnate entity, as a spirit disentangled from the flesh. 

The soul that exalts the operator in the hypnotic procedure 
is the same soul that is freed permanently at the moment of 
death. Why should it cease to project aspirations, modify 
attitudes, communicate ideas, uplift human natures, simply 
because it is forever done with the perishable body as an in- 
strument of expression? If then, in the providence of God, 
disembodied pneumata are free so to do, assuredly they have 
it in their power to communicate directly with us through im- 
pression of the subliminal mind. And we have the same 
power to receive or to repulse all such advances subjectively, 
as we have in our every day objective life. The human soul, 
in subliminal as well as in supraliminal states, is perfectly ad- 
equate to its own protection. Its career in relation to asso- 
ciations and companionships, is determined by its own delib- 
erate choice. 

From my experience in subliminal inspiration, and from 
my knowledge of the reciprocal influence in psycho-therapy 
and of telepathic possibilities in general, I am inclined to 
accept the telepathic rather than the spiritistic hypothesis in 
explanation of the communications received by Professor 
Hyslop from Mrs. Piper. 



(For the paragraphs quoted in the above from the author's article in Harp- 
er's Magazine for June, 1901, due acknowledgment is hereby made.) 



TELEPATHY AND MRS. PIPER. 



BY CLARK BELL, ESQ. 



In reading the statement of Mrs. Leonora E. Piper as it 
appeared in the New York Sunday Herald recently, it seem- 
ed to me, that it was a clear duty to examine the evidence of 
the record of the communications which have been made by 
her in the trance state, to see how far they would sustain the 
view and position she assumes in her statement as announced 
in the New York Herald. 

There can be no better place to look for that record, than 
in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, and 
for this purpose we are justified in assuming their correct re- 
production. They are certainly quite as reliable as the usual 
stenographic notes of the evidence of witnesses on a trial. It 
ought also to be assumed on entering this discussion, that 
no mere pride of opinion nor the change of views of observ- 
ers, like Dr. Hodgson or Prof. Hyslop, should influence our 
analysis of the evidence. 

It is only fair, to recall the fact that neither Dr. Hyslop nor 
Dr. Hodgson were avowed believers in the spiritualistic hy- 
pothesis, nor was the Society of Physical Research itself 
recognized as a body, that was committed to spiritualism at 
the time she commenced her labor for that society. 

It is safe to say that both Dr. Hodgson and Prof. 
Hyslop were regarded as very skeptical indeed of what was 
then constantly exhibited as the phenomena of spiritualism, 
and in my own experience, I found Prof. Hyslop very adept, 
and quick, to detect frauds in the average mediumistic phe- 
nomena, which we some times saw together, and where we 
usually concurred as to the peculiar deceptions used. 

To start with, neither Mrs. Piper, nor indeed the leaders 
of that body at the outset did not probably allege or indeed 
believe, that the phenomena was such as was then regarded 
as spiritistic phenomena. 

Read before the Medico-Legal Society, Dec. 18, 1901. 



36 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY 



So that it is but justice to Mrs. Piper to say, that so far 
as she is personally concerned, there is nothing in her state- 
ment that should be fairly classed as derogatory to either her 
integrity or veracity, or that was in contradiction of her 
views, at the time she com'menced with the society work. 

The fact that the gentlemen named have changed their 
views, even if that change had been based on the manifesta- 
tions or her communications, should not alter the free discus- 
sion of the issue. 

It is too extensive a subject, to consider in an exhaustive 
manner, on such an occasion, and I prefer to limit what I have 
to say to the evidence, and shall quote from the volumes of 
the proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research, and fol- 
low perhaps somewhat in the line of two members of that 
society, along lines which seem to me to be at the very root 
or heart of the discussion. 

I shall refer to a paper by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick entitled 
''Discussion of the Trance Phenomena of Mrs. Piper." 

Mrs. Sidgwick begins by referring carefully to the various 
papers relating to the phenomena as published in the pro- 
ceedings, giving title, author, volume and page. 

She assumes, and .agrees, with Professor Newbold, at the 
outset, (Proceedings Vol. XIV, p. 7,) in the assertion, "I ac- 
cept the conclusion arrived at by everyone so far as I know, 
who has studied the case at any length," "that it was not con- 
sciously got by Mrs. Piper during waking life and then 
fraudulently palmed off on the sitter as supernormal;" or as 
Dr. Leaf puts it (Proceedings Vol. VI., p. 559), "as to the 
first and most obvious question whether she consciously ac- 
quires knowledge with regard to her sitters with the inten- 
tion of deceiving, I may say most positively, that I regard 
such a supposition as entirely untenable." 

Mrs. Sidgwick, in searching for the real cause of the phe- 
nomena, assumed 'That telepathy — in the sense of the im- 
pression of one living m'ind by another, otherwise than 
through the recognized channels of sense may be taken as 
provisionally established by the evidence collected by our 
ciety and other investigators." 

Mrs. Sidgwick agrees with Prof. Lodge, "That thought 
transference is the most common place explanation to which 
it is possible to appeal in the case of Mrs. Piper." Proceed- 
ings Vol. Vi., p. 451.) 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 37 

In such a discussion we should carefully consider and de- 
fine telepathy, so that we might occupy a common ground 
in this respect, as it is now claimed by scientific men, and, 
concerning which we should not find or expect to find dissent- 
ing opinions. 

Telepathy, as it is regarded by scientists who accept it as 
a fact, is some unknown sense or power of the human body, 
by which as* a physical process, communication is held be- 
tween brain and brain of the human organism. Some means 
by which the perceptions are reached in some manner analo- 
gous to the known and well-defined transmission of the elec- 
tric current or the action of gravitation which we know exists, 
but we are as yet unable to comprehend how it acts, or to 
know its methods. 

As yet the process of the action of telepathy is wholly un- 
defined, but that it is a physical process is generally conceded 
by scientific workers. 

Those who wish, like Mr. Hodgson, to extend this view of 
telepathy, so as to embrace communication between the liv- 
ing brain, and the spirit of the dead, through a living brain 
like that of Mrs. Piper, must be classed as in the region of 
controversy; such a view has not yet been demonstrated. 

Mrs. Sidgwick is of the opinion that in no case has the spir- 
its of deceased persons, known to the sitters used her or- 
ganism to speak directly through her to the sitters wi h her 
voice or write for them directly with her hand. (Proceedings 
Vol. XV., part XXXVI, p. 19.) 

Mrs. Sidg-wick is of the opinion that the influence or in- 
telligence operating through Mrs. Piper is fre- 
quently not Mrs. Piper, but some brain out- 
side her own personality. She asserts the exist- 
ence of two separate intelligences, one speaking and one 
writing at the same time, but insists that this condition fre- 
quently exists in hypnotic subjects, and throws no light on 
the subject of the controversy, quoting Mr. Gurney and 
Prof. Janet. (Peculiarities of Certain Past Hypnotic States. 
Proceedings Vol. 4, by Mr. Gurney, also Prof. Janet's work.) 

She attaches little importance to the impressions of the sit- 
ter, regarding the personality of the communicating intelli- 
gence, because, when two or more minds are considering the 
same subject, one will often think it recognizes, and the other 
will on the same identical facts think otherwise. With Mrs. 



38 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Piper it was usually. Phinuit (Dr. P.) and he was speaking 
sometimes for others, and not for himself. This explains 
why the person who is directly communicating or attempting 
to do so, is not the person it claims to be, and which it often 
believes itself to be; but that it is in fact the trance personal- 
ity of Mrs. Piper herself. 

On no other theory can the inconsistencies, contradictions, 
errors, misstatements of known facts, concerning which the 
real person could not be in doubt or in error, which arise in 
communications through her, or in similar communications 
from or through other mediums of similar character be ex- 
plained. 

For example. Dr. Phinuit's description of himself as the 
spirit of a deceased Marseilles physician, is beyond all doubt, 
an incredible statement. 

He cannot speak one word of French. He has not estab- 
lished even a fraction of a reputation for veracity, and so far 
as known none of his statements regarding incidents in his 
life on the earth, have ever been verified. 

His testimony would not have a particle of weight before 
a court or jury if given in an action at law; and that this was 
Mr. Leaf's opinion of him, is clearly shown by Mr. Leaf's 
statement. (Proceedings Vol. VI, p. 60.) 

Take the case of Mr. Stainton Moses (Proceedings Vol. 
XIII, pp. 407-412.) The spirit guides of Mr. Moses assumed 
several names, Imperator, Rector, Mentor, Doctor. As a 
group of witnesses, their statements regarding their own life 
on earth, about Mr. Moses himself, and their teachings to 
him, serve to discredit their evidence. It must be thrown 
out as evidence and would be in any court of justice. 

They gave the names of the historical personages, they 
claimed to have been. Mrs. Piper wrote out these names. 
Investigation shows, those given not to have been correct. 
Wrong names were given. None right, but they are insisted 
upon for a time, and then corrected, and the names corrected 
to others, equally wrong. 

The "Doctor" is Homer and ''Mentor" is Ulysses, and he 
says that he often sees "Telemachus," and can't remember the 
name of the lady who is with him always, until his recollec- 
tion is refreshed bv Dr. Hodgson, when he recalls '''Pene- 
lope." 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 39 

It is perfectly safe to say, that these persons are not the 
personalities they claim to be; or that they are Mr. Stainton 
Moses Guides; or that they have actually used Mrs. Piper'? 
hand as a writing machine to record the evidence of their 
misstatements of facts. 

Mrs. Sidgwick cites an instance in point (Proceedings Vol. 
XIII, p. 348) where Mrs. M. records communications from 
her husband's aunt who had died in 1894, both through Phin- 
uit and when she pretends to write herself, could never give 
her own name correctly, although Mrs. M. repeatedly tried 
to have her do so. 

Mrs. Sidgwick cites the case of where Mr. Hodgson had 
giver Mrs. Piper entranced a piece of Mss. Written by Dr. 
Wiltze to hold. 

Shortly the spirit of Dr. Wiltze appeared, in person claim- 
ing to be dead and that his body was still in the water. Pro- 
ceedings Vol. XXXVI, p. 25. Dr. Wiltze was at the time 
alive and well. 

Is there any rarional explanation of such an occurrence, 
other than to attribute it to an idiosyncracy of the trance 
personality of Mrs. Piper? 

The conclusions which Mrs. Sidgwick reaches regarding the 
trance phenomena of Mrs. Piper are, that they are explain- 
able in no other way, than that they are; consistent with the 
hypothesis that they may have originated with the trance per- 
sonality of Mrs. Piper. 

That it must be conceded that Mrs. Piper is in telepathic 
communication with the sitter, and that the sitter must play 
am important part in relation to the communication. We 
know so little of the methods of telepathic communication be- 
yond the fact that it does exist, that it is only fair to suppose 
that the mind of Mrs. Piper in trance, may and probably does, 
have free access to the thoughts and subliminal consciousness 
of the sitter. 

The mind of the sitter has its recollections of and its im- 
pressions of the deceased person. How far the trance per- 
sonality of Mrs. Piper has access to these recollections and 
memories we do not quite know, nor as yet can we suppose 
them to be wholly unavailable or inaccessible. 

If the dead could communicate with the living, it is not out 
o* the question that the trance personality of Mrs. Piper 
cculd receive impressions from the spirit of the departed; but 



40 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

of this we have no positive evidence. On the whole evidence 
it is quite clear, or rather it is not sufficient, to raise even 
a conviction, that the trance phenomena of Airs. Piper is in 
any sense due to the action of the spirits of the dead, on her 
trance personality, as to the communications made. 

Andrew Lang contributes an article to the "Discussion of 
the Trance Phenomena of Mrs. Piper/' called "Reflections on 
Mrs. Piper and Telepathy.'' Proceedings Vol XXXYI.at page 
39 to 52, of considerable value. It is in the nature of a review 
of Dr.Hodgson's "Further Record of Observation and of Cer- 
tain Phenomena of Trance," as published in Proceedings of 
Scciety of Psychical Research Vol. XXX, p. 406V in which 
be details at length the reasons which are conclusive on his 
mind, that the phenomena can not be regarded as having any 
true relation to communications from the spirit world or 
trom the spirits of deceased persons. Mr. Laner criticises 
Dr. Phinuit, Air. H. and G. P., and says that "if they were 
honorable spirits, they would say they don't know when 
they don't know. They would not give false information, 
'natural enough,' easily guessed, but totally wrong.'' 

He quotes Prof. Pierce, Mr. MacAlister. Mr. Marte. Dr. 
Weir Mitchell, Mr. Barkworth, Mr. Newbold, Mr. Podman, 
Prof. Trowbridge and others, but while he concedes that the 
fccts would raise a strong presumption against the bona- 
fides of I\Irs. Piper, he still says: 

"On David Hume's theory a long set of impositions is the 
most legitimate explanation of Mrs. Piper's successes. For 
reasons given by Dr. Hodgson, I cannot accept the theory of 
imposture by Mrs. Piper in her normal state. For one thing 
she could not afford the expense of private inquiries which 
would more than swallow up the profits." 

Mr. Lang says: 

We are dealing here with a most imperfectly known agency, tel- 
epathy; with a better known agency, the secondary personality, and 
with another wholly unknown agency, spirits of the dead. The 
preference for any of these Laputan alternatives is apt to be decid- 
ed by personal bias. But. to a faint extent, telepathy has the ad- 
vantage of being a vera causa. The advocates of telepathy, at- 
tempting to explain Mrs. Piper's successes, may fall back, as Dr. 
Hodgson says, on "the hypothesis of telepathy from the living, that 
the subliminal consciousness of the sitters, and also of distant liv 
ing persons, might be drawn upon the living." " Thus. Mr. Pelham 
is doing something in Washington with a photograph of his son. G. 
P., and G. P. reports this at Boston through Mrs. Piper. The ex- 
planation (apart from guess or collusion), will be that Mrs. Piper 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 41 

got at the subliminal consciousness of the remote Mr. Pelham, and 
so on in other similar cases. Such a telepathic explanation is "to 
the Greeks foolishness." 

. Mr. Lang continues in the discussion as follows: 

Now the stretching of the telepathic hypothesis was almost forced 
on me (if I was to have any hypothesis), during Miss Angus' exper- 
iments with a glass ball? I presume that these experiments were 
'experimental," in Mr. Lodge's sense of the word, but I am not 
certain. (Making of Religion, Pp. 94-112.) There was in these 
experiments, apparently, a "selective and discriminative capacity in 
Miss Angus' percipient personality." But there was no room for 
the theory of the spirits of the dead, for all concerned were alive. 
To be sure the Polynesians explain all water-gazing by a theory of 
spirits, but Dr. Hodgson will not agree with the Polynesians. (El- 
lis. Polynesian Researches, II, p. 240.) 

Again and again, Miss Angus, sitting with man or woman, de 
scribed acquaintenances of theirs, but not of hers, in situations not 
known to the sitters, but proved to be true to fact. Now the "far- 
going'' hypothesis of direct clairvoyance was here excluded (in 
most cases, not all), by conditions of time. In one instance Miss 
Angus described doings from three weeks to a fortnight old. of peo- 
ple in India, people whom she had never seen or heard of, but who 
were known to her "sitter." Her account, given on a Saturday, 
was corroborated by a letter from India which arrived next day, 
Sunday. In another case she described (about 10 P. M.), what a 
lady, not known to her, but the daughter of a matron present, (who 
was not the sitter), had been doing about 4 P. M. on the same day. 
What the person was doing was not a thing familiar, for I asked 
that question Again, "sitting" with one lady, Miss Angus describ- 
ed a singular set of scenes much in the mind, not of her "sitter," 
but of a very unsympathetic stranger, who was reading a book at 
the other end of the room. I have tried every hypothesis, normal 
and not so normal, to account for these and analogous perform- 
ances of Miss Angus. There was, in the Indian and other cases, 
no physical possibility of collusion; chance coincidence did not 
seem adequate; ghosts were out of the question, so was direct clair- 
voyance. That Miss Angus, (who, by the way, was in the most 
normal and wide-awake condition), had got into touch with the ab- 
solute, and was making discriminating selection from the stores of 
omniscience, did not seem likely, because her crystal pictures ap- 
peared to be directed by the mind of a person present, not always 
the sitter. Nothing remained for the speculative theoriser but the 
idea of cross currents of telepathy between Miss Angus, a casual 
stranger, the sitters, and people far away, known to the sitters or 
the stranger, but unknown to Miss Angus. Unpublished examples 
of these things went on the same lines. Miss Angus picked up 
facts, unknown to the sitters, about people known to them but not 
to her. 

Now suppose that Miss Angus instead of dealing with living peo- 
ple, by way of visions, had dealt by way of voice, or automatic hand- 
writing, and had introduced a dead "communicant." Then she would 
have been on a par with Mrs. Piper, yet with aid from the dead. 
Her cases do not differ from Mrs. Piper's cases, except in copious- 
ness, and in the circumstance that her condition was normal, and 
that she was new to all such exercises. Of course, like Mrs. Piper, 
she had failures. I asked her to try to see the room of a person 
known to me by correspondence only, a person whom I never met, 
(it was a room in Africa, though of course I did not say so), and 
she failed. It was trying her rather high. We did not seek to im- 
prove the result by exclaiming "Dear Tom, Dick or Harry, in Ben- 
gal, Edinburgh, or the Soudan, or the Red Sea, do try to appear 



42 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

more frequently in the glass," as Dr. Hodgson addresses the dead 
"communicators." We could not do that, because the essence of 
the game lay in Miss Angus' ignorance about Dick, Harry and Tom, 
who were kept private in mind of the sitters. Otherwise the per- 
formances of Mrs. Piper and Miss Angus were on a par (except for 
the deadness of the persons concerned), granting the difference of 
the methods of crystal gazing on one hand, and of trance-speaking, 
or automatic writing, on the other. 

Not to rely solely upon Miss Angus, I take another instance. My 
friend Mr. Lesley is known to the world as a man of business, a 
golfer and a composer. He can see crystal pictures, but, (like most 
of my acquaintenances who possess the faculty, including my cook), 
has hardly any interest in the practice. One day Mr. Lesley and I 
had been talking about a lady, unknown to him, but known to me, 
though I had never seen her house. Mr. Lesley began to look into 
a glass water-jug, and described what he saw: the interior of a hall 
of a house, with a good deal of detail. Nenither of us recognized 
the house. I happened later to tell this to the lady of whom we 
had been talking; she said: "Why, that is my house." and on visit- 
ing it, I found that in all respects it answered to Mr. Lesley's de- 
scription. It may be a common type of hall but I do not remember 
having seen one like it elsewhere, nor did Mr. Lesley know any such 
place. 

Now suppose that the lady who occupied the house had been dead. 
And suppose that, instead of looking at a glass water- jug, Mr. Les- 
ley had gone into a trance and announced that the dead lady was 
speaking with his voice. Suppose that when asked for a test she 
had described the hall in her house, (which was unknown to me and 
Mr. Lesley), with certain curious details. Would not Dr. Hodgson 
argue that this might be better explained by the hypothesis of com- 
munication through her spirit, than by telepathy between Mr. Les- 
ley and anybody not present who knew the house? Yet, as its 
owner was and is alive, the theory of a spirit is wholly impossible, 
and if not telepathy a trois, then some other non-spiritualist theory 
must account for the facts, as for the facts in Miss Angus' cases. 

Miss Angus' successes may not be due to cross-telepathy, nor 
may Mr. Lesley's success; very likely that is the wrong explana- 
tion. But of all known "supernormal" explanations, and that alone 
is viable, in these instances, and it is not, I think, incapable of ap- 
plication to Mrs. Piper's cases. Of course I do not reject the expla- 
nation by spirits, in Mrs. Piper's case; I only state the objections 
which occur to me, combined with the fact that Mrs. Piper is sat- 
urated with the animistic hypothesis, and has a dishonest second- 
ary personality, if not dozens of such personalities. In Miss An- 
gus' performances Mr. Podmore suggests (Part XXXIV., p. 130), my 
own provisional guess of telepathy a trois. It is a guess, even a 
wild Laputan conjecture. But we are here concerned with Laput- 
an themes and speculations. Like Mr. Darwin, we are making 
"fools' experiments." Dr. Hodgson's hypothesis may be right: but 
in this region of dreams we ought to hold very lightly by all hypoth- 
eses; and. surely, we ought not to argue from one of them in favor 
of that old belief, the posthumous existence of the human spirit. 
and its power of communicating with the living, through a living 
organism. This is to base faith on a conjecture about conjectures. 
Moreover, in ordinary normal material, such as philogical or anthro- 
pological speculation, we often see how science overshoots her 
mark, remaining for a generation in sure confidence about a theory 
which the next generation explodes. We ought not to let our psych- 
ical theories affect our practical beliefs. To do that may be to pre- 
pare for ourselves, or for our successors, a cruel disappointment. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 43 

Mr. Lang concludes by saying, regarding experiments in 
thought transference: 

"Twice my thought has (apparently and in the absence of 
any other hypothesis known to me), been 'picked up' by an 
experimenter, and in neither case was it my surface thought. 
These things bias one in favor of the belief that there is some- 
thing here into which it may not be waste of time to inquire." 

In experiments made by myself in the Ouicha board when 
1 have endeavored to eliminate all possibility of collusion in 
the medium, and automatic collusion on my own part, I have 
had some experiences, that coincide with what seems to be 
Mrs. Piper's opinion respecting the phenomena she refers to. 

ist. Example, an apparent intelligence describes itself as 
one S. B., whom I had well known in life, and knew by hear- 
say had been drowned on Lake Keuka, the details of which 
I did not know, but had been attributed to drink, to which 
S. B., a well known fisherman', was too much addicted. 

There were two hands on the board, the other beside my 
own was a gentleman, and a spiritualist in belief, who has 
visited at that Lake and at a point where S. B. usually fished 
from, but was not conscious that he knew, or had ever seen 
or ever heard of S. B. I had fished the lake for years with S. 
B. and knew every foot of its bottom well, in that part where 
the transactions occurred near Grove Spring, Gibsons, and 
Keuka Landings. 

S. B. spelling out his name gave me a complete detailed 
history of his drowning, fixed the hour at daybreak, or just 
before daybreak, when he was trolling for trout, the capsiz- 
ing of his boat, and after many questions, stated that his 
body was then in the lake, with all his clothes on, precisely 
as he had died, lying with his face downward, and finally by 
questions referring to names and fishing grounds and places 
located the spot where his body then lay so exactly, that T 
could have dropped an anchor on it or within ten feet of it 
on what was known as the Barren ground among fishermen, 
in about 60 feet of water, almost exactly off the dock that 
was built there. 

Subsequent investigation demonstrated that he was at the 
time of the communication to me, buried in the country 
grave yard near his home, and the whole statement drawn 
from either my imagination or that of my friend, the 
medium, who had given it full credence. 



44 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

A peculiarity of this seance was that we were interrupted 
constantly by an intelligence who was most anxious to com- 
municate with me, but who could not describe himself or 
even tell his name. After a long struggle he did at last spell 
out a name of Wm. S., also a fisherman on that lake, whom I 
knew well in his lifetime and who had been my client. He 
vas a i elation of Samuel B. and in life they were not the 
most intimate friends. He gave me information as to his 
state, his relations then to S. B. and to others of his old set, 
not worth repeating and not at all in accord with what is gen- 
erally believed by the spiritualistic world — not of the slightest 
value, but it seemed simply to be a resolute, determined, and 
finally successful effort of a most obstinate and determined 
party to say "How do you do" to an old friend, but who had 
nothing whatever to communicate. The second hand on 
the board did not know this man in life, and has no con- 
sciousness of knowing him at all, but of course may have 
heard of him, as he was in his day the most prominent fish- 
erman on the lake. 

On another occasion, with a personal friend, a lady of high 
mediumistic powers, as the other of two hands on the 
board, I asked for and obtained the presence of D. B., a man 
oi international reputation, known to the medium, and for 
whom I had acted professionally, and for whose estate I was 
then acting professionally. I had reason to believe that he 
had died possessed of real estate in a foreign city, but I had 
been unable to trace it through his relations, one brother 
knowing its whereabouts, but withholding it. A Ye had been 
very intimate in life, and when he came, after some delay in 
finding him by the celestial messengers, he persisted in ignor- 
ing my questions, and devoting his whole talk to a descrip- 
tion of his present plane and environment, and to explana- 
tions to me of his erroneous views of the future state in life 
(He had been an agnostic) and seemed most anxious to com- 
pel my attention to the erroneous views he had entertained 
in life. 

His description of his first view of me was remarkable, he 
said. Calling me by my first name, "I see you at an illimitable 
distance. I am farther from you than the fixed stars, yet. to 
my sense, the distance is annihilated, and I see you as con- 
scious as if T was face to face on the earth." After a Ion:: 
struggle, with great difficulty, I brought him down from his 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 45 

liigh perch, and he answered my questions respecting this 
missing property. He gave me the name of the street, the 
number of the store, for he said it was a store in the busi- 
ness portion of a great city, and said that the store was and 
had been occupied as a liquor store for years. 

This was wholly imaginary, and there was nothing in the 
interview to at all identify him to me, had he so desired to 
do — but his whole effort, of course due to the mentality of 
the medium, seemed to be to convince'me of the truth of the 
spiritualistic phenomena, and especially to the immortality of 
the soul, and the future state for the spirits of the departed. 

At the same seance, with the same medium, there came 
spelled out the name of Mr. J. G., a well known New York 
financier and railway operator, whom I had known well, and 
for whom I had acted professionally in various great cor- 
porations. The medium, did not know him personally in life, 
was intimately acquainted with stock operations in the 
enterprises, with which he was connected and I knew held, 
what was at that time a most unfavorable opinion of his 
character, life, motives and conduct. I shall not repeat what 
he said personal to himself, or relating to his life or his then 
present state, but he appealed to me as near as I can recall it 
now, in this wise: 

"Whatever the world may say of me or of my past life, no 
one can truthfully speak one disparaging word, against my 
wife, or my children. 

That which makes me suffer most now and here, is the 
reflection and the fear, that, the hatreds of those who classed 
themselves as my enemies, will visit their animosities upon 
my children. Appealing to me, he said: "You know this, as 
well as any one in New York. T introduced you to my 
oldest son. You know my oldest daughter. Use all your 
influence to prevent the animosities of those who hated me 
from reaching or harming my innocent children.'' 

This did allude to a fact that had occurred in life between 
him and me, but it was within my consciousness, and is 
readily explainable by telepathy, and the medium, I think, 
also knew this fact and her mentality dominated the thought 
almost entirely. It did not impress me as a communication 
from the dead. 

It was undoubtedly, both in my mind and in that of the 
medium. 



46 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

I perhaps should say that after a most diligent search, 
extending over years, I have never had any communication 
that I believed to have come from the spirit of the dead. 

Believing in the immortality of the soul, I would gladlv 
welcome any voice from the beyond if it came. .My mind is 
receptive to it, not antagonistic. The Bible plainly teaches 
it. Still it has as yet been unrevealed to my vision or con- 
sciousness. 

A careful resume of the whole subject convinces me that 
Mrs. Piper's statement is entitled to weight and to credit. 

It is in no sense a confession, and should not be so classed 
or regarded. 

As I understand it the officials of the Society do not so 
legard it. They do not regard it as a violation of her en- 
gagement with the Society, and it is authoritatively stated 
that her relations are not severed with that body. Nor in- 
deed should they be. 

If she was now like Mr. Hodson, or Prof. Hyslop, an 
avowed spiritualist, it would not strengthen the value of her 
work with the members of that Society, who are for the most 
part not spiritualists, or not so regarded by the general pub- 
lic. 

It claims to be a scientific workshop. Prof. James is not 
an avowed spiritualist; quite the reverse. Neither was Prof. 
Sidgwick; nor is it clear that Mr. Myers was. 

The mission of spiritualism, if it is yet defined. should be 
to demonstrate 

t. The immortality of the soul of man. 

2. Its power to communicate with the living, by means 
incapable of being denied or refuted. 

It is evidence that is needed. In the courts we establish 
wiiat we call facts by human evidence. 

Uncontradicted human evidence in a case is often accepted 
as a fact in a case, that in .point of fact is not a fact at all. 

Human evidence is full of weakness, yet in all the walks 
of life, we accept it, and we cannot consent to any plan or 
basis by which it is to be ignored. 

A safe standard for our labor — one which must be consid- 
ered by all to be conclusive — is Truth. We in determining 
as to the facts, or the law in a case before courts and juries, 
ask for the Truth. Science delights in demonstration, but in 
beliefs if demonstration is demanded, creeds must be written 
on a thumb nail, and not a half inch long. Let it be our motto 
to search onlv for the Truth, which is immortal and will live 
Forever. 




HON ABRAM H. DAILEY, 

of brooklyn, x. y., 

Ex-Presidext Medicolegal Society, 

Vice-Chairman Psychological Sectiox, 

Vice-Presidext American Coxgress of Tuberculosis. 



SPIRITISM AND MRS. LEONORA E. PIPER, AND 

DOCTOR THOMSON J. HUDSON'S THEORIES 

IN REGARD TO IT. 



BY EX-JUDGE ABRAM H. DAILEY, 

Ex-President of the Medico-Legal Society of New York-. 



In commenting upon a paper coming from the pen of so 
able a writer as Dr. Thomson J. Hudson has proved himself 
to be, in fairness to myself it is proper for me to say, that I 
would not undertake this task did I not feel it my duty to do 
so. A man placed as I am, who thinks he knows the truth, 
upon so important a matter as is here under discussion, — a 
truth affecting the entire human family, — and fails to speak 
the truth as he finds it, is cowardly, and does violence to a 
moral law which fair minded persons must recognize. 

The subject is Spiritism, and the recent utterances of a 
Mrs. Piper, who has been the instrument for spirit manifes- 
tations or otherwise, as the truth shall turn out to be,of many 
eminent persons for quite a number of years. I was not 
surprised i>. hear of her utterances to the effect, that she 
supposed that what she had said and done in an unconscious 
condition, she does not now, and never did possess the 
fore that publication was made in the New York Herald, I 
had heard that she had stated, that she had no consciousness 
of what she had said or done in her trance conditions; that 
she did not know what it was that caused her to do those 
things. It seems that her utterances have turned out to be 
truthful, even though made in her unconscious condition, 
and though they relate to matters of which, in hier normal 
condition, she does not know, and never did possess the 
slightest knowledge, excepting what she has been told con- 
cerning them since they were made. Her integrity is con- 
ceded by Dr Hudson. An explanation which does not ex- 
plain, is no explanation. 



Read before the Psychological Section of the Medico-Legal Society of New 
York, on the 18th day of December, 1901. 



48 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

In my argument we shall apply the same rule to Dr. Hud- 
son that he invokes in regard to the phenomena in question. 
I assume that he will be consistent in what he will say in his 
paper, to be read before the Psychological Section of the 
Medico-Legal Society, with his arguments contained in his 
various published works. He undertakes to explain the 
admitted phenomena, claimed to emanate from discarnate 
spirits upon the theory of Telepathy and Suggestion, and 
through the operation of the subjective mind of the psychic. 
He has invoked a rule in his favor, that the spiritual hypoth- 
esis cannot be accepted, if it can be accounted for upon any 
other natural theory. In other words, the presumption is 
always against a spiritistic source, and it amounts to this: — 
that it must be proved that it could not possibly have orig- 
inated from any other than a spiritual source, before it can be 
accepted. 

You will see at the outset, that the poor ghost is at an em- 
inent disadvantage. He is not entitled to even "the benefit 
of a reasonable doubt." The worst criminal arraigned in a 
court of justice is presumed to be innocent until he is proven 
guilty; notwithstanding the great volume of testimony that 
may be produced against him, if there is a reasonable doubt 
as to his guilt, he is entitled to the benefit of that doubt and 
must be acquitted. A man may travel around the world 
with letters of credit: he may be identified in various ways, 
so as to be received into the best society in distant countries, 
or anywhere on the civilized globe ; but these letters of cred- 
it, or the usual methods of identification, would not be suffi- 
cient under the rule applied by Dr. Hudson, in dealing with 
the ghost, in his endeavors to identify himself to his friends 
and others, to whom he may desire to come for the benefit, 
not only of himself, but of the great humanity he has left be- 
hind. If he comes, as did Moses and Elias on the Mount of 
Tranfiguration to Jesus, and to some of his disciples; or as 
Jesus did to the two Marys at the door of the Sepulcher; or 
to the two disciples on their journey to Emmaus, and to oth- 
er of his disciples, such appearances may not be accepted by 
scientists, because they might possibly be simulated: in oth- 
er words, the testimony of all spiritual manifestations which 
has come down the ages, is subject to rejection, and must be 
rejected by scientists, if it could have been produced or ac- 
counted for on any natural hypothesis. To do Dr. Hudson 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 4'$ 

no wrong, I quote from an article from his pen, contained in 
Harper's Monthly of August, 1900, and it reads: 

"I will strenuously insist upon the recognition of the ax- 
iom of science, that we have vo logical right to attribute any 
phenomena to supermundane agency, that can be accounted 
for on the principles of Natural Law." I am a lawyer, and 
claim to know something of legal principles, and also to have 
made some investigation into the claims of that great and 
ever increasing number of people denominated Spiritualists, 
who embrace within their doctrines the claim of the spiritual' 
source of certain phenomena and manifestations. I don't 
know of any, who claims that anyone of these cannot be ac- 
counted for on principles of natural law. I know of no 
persons who are such sticklers for the reign of Natural Law, 
as these much abused and little understood people. They 
now number among those, who accept the spiritual source of 
much of the phenomena, renowned scientists, professors, 
doctors of divinity, logicians and learned men and women all 
over the civilized world. I know of no great religion, em- 
braced by the human family, that did not have its origin, to., 
a greater or less extent in spiritual phenomena. 

Dr. Hudson is a brave man ; he has undertaken to account * 
for a great part of this phenomena, certainly a very valuable ■ 
part, upon the theory of telepathy, suggestion, auto-sugges- - 
tion and hypnotism; anything but a spiritual source. Th/fe 
discovery strangely accounts for Abraham's faith, and the 
deep sleep which fell upon him, when the fortunes and mis- 
fortunes of his posterity were revealed to him. It is a strange 
way of accounting for the voice that called the child "Sam- 
uel, Samuel," awakening him from his sleep, and telling him 
what should befall the house of Eli, which revelation indeed, 
came true. It must be held to account for the source from? 
which Micaich was able to tell Ahab so truthfully the fate 
that awaited him should he go out to battle with the king of 
Syria. If the sub-conscious mind and telepathy account for 
the numerous other communications in the Old Testament, 
then they account for the wonderful things given to the 
world recorded in the New Testamant. 

It is long since man was first told to know himself, and cer- 
tainly I agree with Dr. Hudson, that he has been a long time 
in attaining his present knowledge. According to Dr. Hud- 
son, man has two minds; his objective mind and his subjec- 



130 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

tive mind, and that as a rule, they are entirely unacquainted 
with each other. I have always believed, and still believe, 
that man has a natural and a spiritual body; that the spirit- 
ual body may be denominated the soul, the eternal principle 
of life, which gives the soul of man his spirit, and that, that 
spirit is immortal and indestructible. I have never believed, 
nor do I now, that man has two minds. I believe he has 
"but one mind, and that which Dr. Hudson and other scien- 
tists denominate the "Sub-conscious Mind," or "Subliminal 
Consciousness," or the "Subjective Mind" — is part of the one 
mind, which has the capacity to observe more than one thing 
at a time, and that it may be used to do more than one thing 
at the same moment; and that while a man may centre his 
mind and reasoning faculties upon one thing, he is also con- 
scious of numerous other things which are transpiring around 
him. They leave their impressions, and may be recalled but 
not so readily perhaps, as those objectively graven upon that 
part of the memory which is most in use. The different fac- 
ulties of the mind are not uniformly developed in any one 
person. In some they are virtually atrophied for want of 
•use, while others are abnormally keen and sensitive. Car- 
lied to its legitimate conclusion, Dr. Hudson's theory finds, 
that the Subconscious Mind is devoid of the power of reason- 
ing synthetically; that it cannot reason inductively; that its 
processes are deductive or syllogistic. Therefore, the mind 
• v\ r h'ich he has used in writing his paper is the Objective Mind, 
possessed of the double power of reasoning inductively and 
deductively, and that this faculty has come from the neces- 
sities of pre-existing conditions, and possessing these powers 
man becomes morally responsible for his mistakes and er- 
vrors. In the main I agree with him. He holds in his trea- 
tises, that "the Objective Mind, is merely the function of the 
physical brain, while the Subjective Mind, is a distinct entity, 
possessing independent powers and functions, having a men- 
tal organization of its own, and capable of sustaining an ex- 
istence independent of the body. In other words, that it is 
the Soul." (Law of Psychic Phenomena, p. 30.) He also 
holds, "that man in his normal condition, is not controllable 
against reason, positive knowledge or the evidence of his 
senses by the suggestions of another." Also, "that the Sub- 
jective Mind of man in the hypnotic state, is unqualifiedly and 
constantly amenable to the power of suggestion," (i. d.) con- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 51 

sequently, that the Subjective Mind always accepts as true 
every suggestion, and acts from that considerations matter 
whether true or false. He claims to sustain this by hypnotic 
experiments. I admit the facts he cites in support of his 
various theories, but not all of his conclusions. 

He claims, and I agree with him, that we have cases of 
Auto-Suggestion or Self-imposed hypnotic conditions, but 
we do not agree as to the extent to which it can be carried. 
This occasion does not afford the opportunity to answer 
many of the arguments advanced by Dr. Hudson, to main- 
tain his theory that all of the phenomena of alleged super- 
mundane sources, can be otherwise accounted for by tele- 
pathy and the wonderful operations of the Subjective Mind. 
If he fails in any one instance, then the rule he has invoked 
against the ghost will fail, and the ghost will be in evidence ; 
for good rules work both ways; there are no exceptions. 

The interesting feature in connection with Dr. Hudson's 
theory, which I shall here avail myself of, is that he has un- 
questionably demonstrated to his own satisfaction in his 
treatises, the existence and immortality of the soul of man, 
without resorting to any of the phenomena of the Spiritual- 
ists. It then follows, that this world since it became gener- 
ative and life sustaining, has been producing and multiplying 
lfe in various forms, the physical part alone being visible. 
That life, soul and spirit, like all the potencies in the universe 
are invisible to us in our normal conditions, he must admit. 
The spiritual part of man he concedes, passed out of the body 
unobserved, and that it has an abiding place somewhere, he 
cannot and will not deny. That the Heavens or the Earth, 
and probably both, are the abodes of these spiritual beings, 
it seems to me must be admitted. That passing from the 
material world to the world of spirit, should destroy the iden- 
tity of, or the affectionate nature of the spirit of man, he does 
not anywhere contend, but argues the reverse. (See laws 
Psychic Phenomena, p. 401, &c.) Therefore, the present 
population of this world is an insignicant number, compared 
with the countless hosts in the other world. 

We start with these facts conceded. 1st. The existence 
of man, an embodied spirit, certain to become disembodied 
through death. 2nd. We will accept Dr. Hudson's scien- 
tific demonstration of the future life as established by his 
process of reasoning by inductive, deductive and synthetic 



52 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

methods, and that the soul of man lives on, and is "Over 
There," or somewhere, in constant evidence to those who are 
conscious of its presence, in the same sense that we are con- 
scious of each other. Now, his position is, that his method 
is the scientific method, and the one method by which the ex- 
istence of the soul of man after death can be demonstrated 
scientifically. I take issue with him. I deny that the other 
phenomena is devoid of evidential value. . In his article con- 
tained in Harper's Magazine, he says: "A moment's consid- 
eration will reveal a clear line o f demarcation between those 
phenomena such as rapping, table-tipping, levitation of pon- 
derable bodies without physical contact or mechanical appli- 
ances, slate writing, et hoc genus omne. It is not, however, 
necessary either to doubt or deny that these phenomena are 
produced by super-normal means except for the purpose of 
assuming to be ultra- scientific; nor is it necessary to believe 
in their genuineness; for they all may be fraudulently pro- 
duced; or they all may be veridical without affecting the ques- 
tion of spirit intercourse." 

I would like to discuss fully his position as to this class of 
phenomena, but I shall refrain from doing so at this time. 

I have in this paper assumed that Dr. Hudson will here 
take the same position, and advance the same or similar ar- 
guments contained in his contribution to Harper's Magazine 
of August, 1900. In this he assumes, First, the integrity of 
the medium, and Second, the medium believes the communi- 
cations to be what they purport to be. Third, the medium 
is unconscious of having any part or lot in determining the 
contents or character of the communication, or, of possess- 
ing any psychological power or attribute that would render 
unconscious participation possible. Fourth, that the med- 
ium normally possessing no dramatic power, often person- 
ates soi-disant spirits with wonderful accuracy, often imitat- 
ing voice, gesture and mental idiosyncracies of the supposed 
personality. Fifth, the alleged spirit often manifests mental 
and normal characteristics, antipodal to those normally pos- 
sessed by the medium, etc. 

He then admits, that if unexplained, those statements, if 
true, go far towards establishing the validity of the claims 
01 the spiritists. He then says — and let all the world take 
note, — using his language: "It would be' foolish to deny the 
facts since they can be so easily substantiated." But, he 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 53 

says, "in view of the discoveries of modern science, the spir- 
itistic theory is no longer tenable. That is to say, — the phe- 
nomena can now be accounted for by reference to known psy- 
chological laws." He says we shall have no difficulty in find- 
ing- a solution for all that is mysterious on principles of Nat- 
ural Law, with which scientists are now well acquainted, prin- 
ciples which are perfectly consistent with the integrity of all 
concerned, which, "obviates all necessity for seeking a solu- 
tion in the realms of the supermundane." 

He then asserts, that the "solution of all this phase of spir- 
itistic phenomena is found in the Law of Suggestion." That 
"this law is known to every psychological student, except per- 
haps a few scientists who are committed to the spiritistic hy- 
pothesis." For their benefit he explains what that law is. 
Briefly, it shows that if a person is hypnotised, the subject is 
under the control of the hypnotist; the hypnotist has control 
of the objective mind of the subject, he will have virtually dis- 
possessed it and the subjective mind of the subject is amen- 
able to the law of suggestion, and in that condition, the sub- 
ject does all the wonderful things any spiritual medium ever 
did or can do, in addition to all the hypnotic subject has ever 
done. In aid of his theory of explanation he brings Tele- 
pathy and Clairvoyance. The first being the transmission 
of thought by mental processes alone, and the other the spir- 
itual vision, of what he denominates, the Subjective Mind. 
I assume that he includes Clairaudience, which is the hearing 
of a spirit voice, not audible to others. 

I find Dr. Hudson's theory admirably presented in his 
works; but he must admit that the whole of his argument is 
equally as consistent with the possibility of Spirit Suggestion, 
as it is to that of a mortal. He does not explain the conduct 
of the medium, nor the source of the communication, when 
there is no visible being present to suggest to the psychic the 
presence of the invisible one. What he attempts will be 
noted. 

Now I will say frankly, that for nearly twenty-five years, I 
have lived in close relations with some of the best psychics in 
this country, and am now, and have been intimately acquaint- 
ed with many from other countries, and Dr. Hudson does 
not account consistently and rationally for much of the phe- 
nomena I have witnessed. The rational and consistent 
method of reasoning upon which he relies, fails to bring me 



54 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

to his conclusions, for to my mind it has the fault of being 
neither. Let me give an instance which came under my ob- 
servation. Something over twenty years ago, a lady of my 
acquaintance became conscious of some uncommon manifes- 
tations in her presence, and suddenly developed clairvoyant 
and clairaudient powers. In attempting to examine into the 
phenomena' of the Spiritualists with a view to explain them, 
and explode the spiritistic hypothesis, I became convinced,by 
some of the most startling phenomena occurring in my pres- 
ence, which I shall not here describe. I became convinced 
of its super-mundane source and that I was wrong, and like 
Paul, I asked, "Lord, what will Thou have me to do?" The 
answer came, "Wait, and it will be shown to you." Some 
days later this lady became entranced in my presence, by what 
claimed to be the spirit of a man, who in this life was a sail- 
or; who during the early part of the Rebellion, had command- 
ed a vessel in the government service; he said he died in the 
early Sixties, of asthmatic consumption, in the vicinity of 
New York, aged upwards of sixty years. To certain ques- 
tions which I put to him, he refused to give me answers, but 
as to the place of his nativity, his relatives, many of the in- 
cidents and hardships of his early life, of his going out to sea 
on a whaling ship from New Bedford when a little boy. of the 
brutality of his captain, of his leaving the ship in a foreign 
port and being taken up by another captain and taught nav- 
igation, and of numerous events in his life, he then told me. 
He said he had been brought to the lady medium by a daugh- 
ter of mine, who had been then a good many years in the 
spirit world, having died in infancy. That he came for the 
purpose of taking charge of the young medium, of giving 
to n:>e counsel and warnings insofar as he was able, and 
that thereby he would help me and advance himself spirit- 
ually. He made plain to me, what he required, but required 
that I should be as faithful to him as he would be to me. He 
required that I should be kind and charitable, that I should 
bear testimony to the truth as I found it to be. I have tried 
to do so, and I shall be astonished to find that I have been 
deceived and have been misleading others these many years. 

Having now been for so many years living in the midst of 
convincing phenomena, and having thousands of times been 
wisely advised and deservedly censured and admonished b> 
him, I did not take any steps to verify the truth of his state- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 55- 

ments as to his identity, or any of the incidents of his early 
life, until last September, when I went with this lady to New 
Bedford, Massachusetts, for that express purpose. We had 
neither of us ever been there, and had no acquaintances in 
the town. You will pardon me, I hope, for being a little ex- 
plicit, for in this experience I am confirmed in my positioiv 
and meet the argument of Dr. Hudson and other supporters 
of the telepathic theory. Having alighted from the train, we 
stepped aside, and I then said: "Now, Captain, we are in> 
your hands, and we want you to do what you can to verify 
your statement? He immediately replied through the med- 
ium: "Do you realize what you ask of me? Do you con- 
sider that it is ninety years since I lived here; that I went 
away when a little boy and seldom came back, and never ta 
stay, and that I have been now away from here entirely, over 
sixty years; that all I ever knew here are dead long ago? 1 
Well, I will do the best I can. We lived in a place up back 
on the hill called Spruce Lane, now Spruce Street; go there." 
I went to a coachman and asked him if there was a street 
called Spruce Lane or Spruce Street in the city. He said,. 
"yes, over back on the hill is a little street by that name." We 
went then to a hotel and got our dinner, and while there he 
told us of the name of a former owner, and of the changes 
that had been made in the hotel. All was true. We then 
took a coach and drove to Spruce Street. On our way he . 
pointed out, and said through the medium, that where now 
are paved streets and blocks of houses, when he was a boy,, 
there were open lots, criss-crossed with paths. When we 
drove into Spruce Lane, he found all was changed; the little 
house where he said he lived was gone. "Go," said he, "to- 
the grave yards, first to the new one, and look at the tomb- 
stones. I will tell you the names before you go of some 1 
knew and who are buried there." He gave us the full names 
of those persons and the relations they bore to each other. 
Some of these persons he had mentioned to me in Brooklyn,, 
more than twenty years before. We entered the cemetery 
and found them as he had given them to us. "Now," said 1 
he, "go to the old Second St. cemetery where mother was 
buried." I asked the driver if there was such a cemetery and 
he said "yes." Now, twenty years before, in Brooklyn, he 
had told me of the sad life of his mother, and of her death in 
want, before poverty drove him to sea. He spoke of his de- 






56 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

votion to her, and that when she died, a friend by the name 
of Spooner had given her a burial place in his family plot. 
That stones were erected in the plot with the name of Spoon- 
er inscribed thereon, but that only a piece of board with her 
■name was placed at the head of his mother's grave. When 
w)e reached the old cemetery, we found it closed by a high 
fence, and the gate locked, but standing by the fence he 
pointed out to us, one hundred feet or more away, the place 
of his mother's burial, and we could read the name of Spoon- 
er, upon the stones in the plot he pointed to. On our way to 
the cemetery, he told us that his mother attended a little 
Mehodist church which we would pass, unless it too was 
gone. Directly we came to a new but small church, 
which had succeeded to the old one he had attended. Of that 
little church he had spoken many years before. We could 
only remain a few hours in New Bedford, and anticipate go- 
ing there again to complete the identification of this spirit, 
whose name while here, was John Taylor, Taylor being a 
very common family name in New Bedford. The first time 
this spirit came to me I was alone with the medium, in Brook- 
lyn. His existence was utterly unknown to us. To set the 
Law of Suggestion at work, there must be a suggester. Who 
was the suggester in this case? I claim to have obtained 
some evidence to corroborate his claim to having once lived 
in New Bedford. From whose subjective mind came the 
idea to this lady of a sailor by the name of John Taylor, who 
was born in New Bedford, and all this story of his life? 

I have stated a case of facts known neither to the medium 
nor to any person present; those facts have, to a certain ex- 
tent, been verified. Will the doctrine of telepathy account 
for it? If it does, from whence did the telepathic thoughts 
proceed? They must have originated in the mind of some 
absent or present person in mortal form, or from some ab- 
sent or present being in invisible form. They could not have 
-originated in either the mind of the medium or my own. In 
the absence of any other known method of communicating 
the name of this personality, and his having put in an ap- 
pearance declaring his identity and means of determining it, 
is there any presumption raised that he is what he purports 
to be? It is true, the medium was not in her normal condi- 
tion, when he first appeared. The question arises: — is that 
.abnormal condition a manifestation that she is for the time 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 57 

~being possessed of a separate intelligence? The fact that 
truthful statements come through her lips concerning mat- 
ters of which neither she nor I ever had any knowledge, is 
very conclusive evidence that the communications are from 
some other intelligence. If they are not from such a person- 
ality, the question is presented: Is it possible that the com- 
munication could have originated from any other source? If 
so, from what source? Has Dr. Hudson anywhere explain- 
ed? If he can't explain, then the argument is against him 
.and his various theories fail. 

I have noted with much interest, that he quotes in his ar- 
ticle in Harper's Magazine, from Mr. W. F. H. Myers, re- 
cently deceased, saying there is a small percentage of mes- 
sages apparently telepathic — containing, — that is to say, facts 
probably unknown to the autonomist, but known to some 
living person in his company or connected with him. He ad- 
mits that Mr. Myers, after careful investigation, has commit- 
ted himself to the spiritualistic theory, and says, he has so 
quoted him because, he is one of the ablest and fairest of the 
Psychical Researchers who have committed themselves to 
the spiritistic hypotheses ; and because, he distinctly recog- 
nizes telepathy as the obvious explanation of one class of 
-messages, and for the further reason, — using his own lan- 
guage, — "that inasmuch as I shall endeavor to make it clear 
that all that is mysterious in any of the above named classes 
of messages is easily explicable under the telepathic theory. 
•I wish first to show definitely the point where our paths di- 
verge. This parting of the ways occurs when the third class 
of communications is reached, namely, those containing facts 
known neither to the medium nor to any other person pres- 
ent." He then says that it is at this point that the issue is 
declared between the two hypotheses — the spiritistic and the 
•telepathic. On one hand, spiritists decline to accept tele- 
apathy as a possible factor in the case, if anyone having 
knowledge of the facts related by the medium is actually 
-present at the sitting. On the other hand, the advocates of 
the telepathic theory of explanation hold, that if any living 
;person who is in telepathic rapport with any one present, has 
knowledge of the facts related, we are logically compelled 
to accept the telepathic hypothesis. This, of course, involves 
the denial on the one hand, and the affirmation on the other, 
that more than two persons may be concerned in the trans- 



58 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

mission of a telepathic message, and it is upon the settlement 
of this question that the whole controversy hinges. Reduc- 
ed to its lowest terms, the question at issue may thus be stat- 
ed affirmatively: ''If A can by any known means of com- 
munication convey a message to B, B can convey the same 
message by the same means to C, other things, of course, 
being equal. ,r He says, the truth of this proposition, seems- 
to be self-evident. Therefore, the proposition advanced by 
Dr. Hudson amounts to this: that if Jones had known John 
Taylor in New Bedford ninety years ago; had told Smith 
about Taylor, and Smith had told Brown what Jones said to 
him about Taylor and Brown had told Greene what Smith 
said he had heard about Taylor, and Greene had told 
White what Brown had told him he had heard about 
Taylor, and Wite was acquainted with the medium, 
but had never told the medium what he had heard 
about Taylor, the doctrine of telepathy, would account 
for all that came through the lips of the medium, as purport- 
ing to come from John Taylor himself, in regard to the inci- 
dents of his early life, his career and death. You must bear 
in mind now, that suggestion apparently plays no part in pro- 
ducing the communication, because White, who knows the 
medium, is not present; is perhaps a thousand miles away, — 
knows nothing about what is transpiring, and consequently,, 
cannot suggest to the medium that she should communicate 
even the name of John Taylor, or attempt to play the role of 
a sailor. But, in the case I have stated, even White is un- 
known to the medium, for no person has ever come in con- 
tact with her or me, who knew or heard of John Taylor. 

Telepathy carried to its utmost, is only the transmission- 
of thought from one intelligence to another. To account 
for all such communications, involves the necessity of there 
being several intelligences transmitting the successive state- 
ments to the medium, and the medium responding by giving- 
expression in language to them, and they must all be incar- 
nate, otherwise, the spirit hypothesis is involved. The most 
that all the experiments of the Psychical Research Societies- 
have accomplished, is to establish the possibility of telepathic 
communication between one mortal and another. The 
moment it becomes the method of communication between 
a spirit and a mortal, the spiritistic theory is established and 
the ghost, becomes an important factor. Telepathy, — signi- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 59 

fying thought — transference, — is inapplicable to express the 
interblending of minds in the manner suggested by Dr. Hud 
son. That is not thought transference. It becomes the 
commingling of the mentalities of several persons, whereby 
they become for the time being at least, common, while the 
mind of the psychic, like a burglar in a man's house, steals 
and carries away the secret and priceless jewels of his victim's 
life. There is a little truth, and much error in the idea pre- 
sented. There is a time coming, when man will no longer 
hide his sins. It is not now. Thought transference is a 
common language between discarnate spirits. It is possible 
to a very limited extent between mortals. It is greater be- 
tween spirits and mortals, when the latter are in a receptive 
condition, as in moments of repose. Test mediums in an 
entranced condition, give by clairvoyant powers, and by the 
aid of discarnate spirits, communications from spirits, and 
often what only comes from clairvoyance, or soul seeing. 

Let us glance for a moment, at the distinction between 
suggestion to a hypnotic subject and trance-communication. 
The hypnotic subject is first hypnotized. We will take Dr. 
Hudson's illustrations. The subject is told by the hypnotizer 
that he is President of the United States. He will act the 
part with wonderful fidelity to life. He is told that he is in 
the presence of angels; he will be profoundly moved to acts 
of devotion. If the presence of devils is suggested, his terror 
will be instant and painful to behold. He may be thrown 
into a state of intoxication, by being caused to drink a glass 
Ci water under the impression that it is brandy. He may be 
restored to sobriety by the administration of brandy, under 
the guise of an antidote for drunkenness, (p. 31) Law of 
Psychic Phenomena. 

Without hypnotizing a subject first, he can be made to be- 
lieve none of these things. There is no spirit medium in a 
normal condition who can be thus imposed upon; nor is the 
entranced medium subject to the Law of Suggestion. The 
partially entranced medium does not suppose nor believe him- 
self or herself, to be other than what he or she actually is. 
If fully entranced, the medium is utterly unconscious of what 
is transpiring around her, but the entranced spirit reasons 
cogently, provided the medium is a fit subject for such pur- 
pose. It is a well known fact by investigators, that hypnotiz- 
ing a person tends to aid in the development of mediumship 



60 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

as stated by Dr. Hudson in one of his treatises. It is also 
well known, that in numerous instances, a spirit will step in 
and take possession of the hypnotic subject, who thereafter 
becomes a spiritual medium, and will defy the hypnotist to 
hypnotize the subject thereafter. Such possession by the 
spirit does not come from any Law of Suggestion. It comes 
against the suggestion and desire of the hypnotizer; and the 
subject, knowing nothing of spirit phenomena, could not sus- 
gest, and would have been terrified at the thought of being 
possessed by a spirit. The hypnotizer is an embodied spirit 
— a man — and is visible. The spirit, is a disembodied man, 
and is invisible to the hypnotist and probably to the medium 
as well. He is on another plane of existence. If a man can 
hypnotize a subject, so he must do the strange things these 
subjects frequently do, it is quite rational to suppose, that a 
spirit, possessing a spiritual body, mental force and energy 
more potently now than when in earthly form, might actually 
entrance the subject, and become almost the personality he 
was in life, using the organism of the subject to give expres- 
sion to his thoughts and acts. There is nothing imaginary 
about it. Because the hypnotist can delude his subject and 
make him the victim of practical jokes, as well as impractical 
ones, and can open up the powers of what Dr. Hudson calls 
the "Subjective Mind," bring back all the memories and im- 
pressions obtained in a lifetime, so that they can be used by 
the subject in playing the part assigned him, is no argument 
whatever, that the phenomena of entrancement and inspira- 
tion, can be accounted for upon that hypothesis. 

Dr. Hudson's position, involves a telepathic linking of 
minds, in the same manner, measurably, as telegraphic lines 
are connected, and they thus encircle the world. But the 
forces at work are entirely unlike. In the one case, an inan- 
imate substance vibrates the sounds of the transmitter's ham- 
mer or voice to the receiver at the other end of the line. 
There are only two mentalities engaged in communicating, 
one at each end of the wire. One knows just what the other 
transmits and no more. In the telepathic process, involving 
the connection of several distinct mentalities, in each in- 
stance, according to Dr. Hudson's theory, the psychic be- 
comes in rapport with the subjective mind of each person, out 
of which he calls forth from the memory of each — and each 
containing millions upon millions of impressions and recol- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 61 

lections, — that which now enables a psychic to give to the re- 
ceiver and all others the name and history of John Taylor, 
the story of his life and death, and far more, — the names, vo- 
cations and relations of hosts of people to each other, who 
lived in the distant city when he was born. Those present 
having never heard of John Taylor, are astonished at his ap- 
pearance, and after an acquaintance with him of over twenty 
years, in which time the psychic can hear his voice, and at 
times discern his spiritual presence, the telepathic theory of 
Doctor Hudson is submitted as overthrowing the spiritual 
hypothesis. 

Quoting a familiar Latin phrase, it is "reductio ad absurd- 
am." But I recall more cases of personal experience, which 
I wish to relate, bearing directly upon the points in contro- 
versy. Fully twenty years ago, a spirit entranced this same 
medium, when she and I were alone, and announced himself 
as Dr. Morse, giving his full name, and stating to me that 
he had died a number of years before in the city of New Or- 
leans, where he had lived and practiced his profession, and 
where he had a family still living. He said that he had been 
prominently connected with the hospitals in New Orleans, 
and had a very extensive practice, saying, that he probably 
had occasioned the death of some patients, but that he had 
assisted a great many, and had done the best he could. I 
was not well at the time, and the medium herself was in poor 
condition of health. He said that he had come to be of as- 
sistance to us, and while he did not propose to interfere un- 
less it was necessary, with the treatment we were receiving, 
he would stand by and warn us of mistakes insofar as possi- 
ble. He was very faithful in coming to us, and gave me very 
salutary advice in regard to my health. Upon one occasion 
the medium, whom I may say is my wife, was in a very weak 
condition. She had ascended a flight of stairs to her cham- 
ber, when I found her suddenly entranced of Dr. Morse, who 
directed me to give her a spoonful of brandy as quickly as 
possible, for she was on the point of passing out of her body. 
Her face was deathly pale and I hurriedly gave her the 
barndy. He directed me to place one of my hands upon her 
forehead, and the other upon the back of her head, while he 
would hold control until she had rallied. This was done, 
and in a short time she rallied, and her heart resumed its 
wonted action, he directing me to sense her pulse. 



<62 SPIRITISM. AND TELEPATHY. 

At the time of the Exposition in New Orleans, being in 
poor health, the medium and I went to that city and spent 
a few days. As we approached the city, she informed me 
that she felt the presence of Dr. Morse very strongly, and 
presently became quite interested in everything to be seen 
around us. She pointed out the locality in the city where 
Doctor Morse had lived, and said she could go directly to 
his house. Up to this time, I had taken no steps to verify 
what I have here stated. Arriving at our hotel, I visited a 
drug store, questioned the druggist as to whether such a per- 
son hadi ever lived in the city, as this Dr. Morse, and I re- 
ceived the fullest verification of all he had told me, even to 
the location of the house where he resided, which was in the 
section of the city indicated by the medium. 

It is a fact well known to spiritualists, that through the 
personality or aura of a medium, the spirit can get in rapport 
with the medium, so that the spirit can see again upon the 
earth as if still in mortal form. Consequently, the opportun- 
ity was afforded Dr. Morse, he being in rapport with the 
medium, to look again upon the city and its surroundings, 
with which he had been so familiar many years before. The 
medium had this consciousness of his almost constant pres- 
ence with her during our stay there. I regret to say that 
she became rather tired of it, and one day, while we were 
sitting outside the Exposition grounds on a settee, she arose 
and remarked: "I wish Dr. Morse would go away from me. 
I cannot take a step but I feel him stepping beside me, and 
it begins to annoy me." I instantly arose, considerably vex- 
ed at her remark, saying: "When you have been ill, Dr. 
Morse has been on hand to save you life. When I have been 
ill, I have had the benefit of his wisdom. I think you and I 
can both stand a good deal of Dr. Morse, and you should 
make no such remark as that." Immediately, the firm pres- 
sure, as of a hand, was upon my shoulder, and imagining 
somebody whom I had not seen was present, pushing me, I 
hurriedly turned, asking who pushed me but saw nothing; 
we were entirely alone insofar as I could see; but I knew what 
it meant, and I knew that the remark had deeply wounded 
our kind friend. 

Telepathy, suggestion, clairvoyance and clairaudience are 
submitted as sufficient explanation of these remarkable mani- 
festations. One other instance and I will finish my illustra- 
tions. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 63 

Some eighteen years ago the medium and I were quite in- 
timately acquainted with a Dr. Howard, his wife and family. 
During our absence of a few weeks from the city, his wife had 
-died, and had been some six weeks in the spiritual world, 
at the time the incident I am relating occurred. The med- 
ium was entranced of one, who had represented herself as 
'the spirit of a little girl, whose name was Daisy Crandall. 
She had come to us many times, and is still part of our spirit- 
ual family. Several friends were present when she spoke 
hurriedly saying: "Why, here is Mrs. Howard. She says she 
has just come from the doctor's house; that the house is on 
fire, and that she was frightened, fearing that the old doctor 
•would be burned up." It was a pat statement, and quite 
startling. I remarked: "I hope Daisy, you are not mistak- 
en, for you know very well that the medium knows nothing 
of what you say, and if it turns out that there was no fire, 
there, it would be very annoying to her/' She became im- 
mediately indignant, and asked me if I supposed that Mrs. 
Howard would come there and tell a lie. I meekly replied 
,,'No, but I didn't know but that there might be a mistake." 
She reiterated that there was no mistake. She believed what 
Mrs. Howard said. 1 said nothing of the occurrence until 
:after the company had gone. When I told the medium of 
what had been said through her lips, while she had been en- 
tranced, she became very much excited, — stamped her foot, 
and said that no control should put her in that position, for 
she did not believe there was a word of truth in the state- 
ment. She had hardly gotten the words from her mouth, be- 
fore the spirit returned, seizing control of her, and sitting 
down, she burst into tears and said to me. "Tomorrow 
morning I want you to harness the horse and carriage, and 
take the medium down to Dr. Howard's house, and I will tell 
, you just what you will find there. You will find that the fire 
engines were there, that they put water in through the house; 
that it came down through th^ ceiling; that the bedding was 
on fire, and that they threw the mattresses in the back-yard, 
and say to her when I am gone, that she must not question 
our truthfulness, for we do not lie." I did as requested. We 
drove down to Dr. Howard's ; he lived in a brown stone house 
on Bedford avenue. As 1 drove up to the curbstone, there 
was no sign of fire in the front part of the building. The 
medium immediately exclaimed; "There, I told you so." 1 



64 ' SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

said, "Wait." I ran up the steps and rang the bell at the~ 
door. The call was answered bv the doctor himself, and the 
moment the door was opened, the work of the flames and 
water was before me. The doctor at once stated that fire had 
broken out the night before, and he came near being burned 
up. I hurriedly ran through the hall of his house, looked out 
01 the back window of the parlor, and the mattresses were still 
smouldering in the yard, and the ceilings were soaking with 
water. 

I might multiply instances of similar occurrences, but I 
have stated sufficient, and Dr. Hudson and scientists who sup- 
port his theory of explaining these remarkable phenomena, 
must present something more convincing as to the truth of 
their position, before I shall give up the happy consciousness 
in which I have lived so many years, that the spiritual world 
is around us, and our departed friends are not dead but can 
come to us. 

It will be noted that Dr. Hudson has avoided entering into 
that domain of phenomena of a physical .character, which he 
says may or may not be explained, as emanating from spirit- 
ual sources, but, because it can be duplicated by the applica- 
tion of known principles of natural law as evidence, the evi~ 
dence that it emanates from a spiritual source is destroyed. I 
wish simply to say, that I have witnessed manifestations that 
cannot be duplicated through the application of any of the 
known principles of natural law, as I understand he desires 
to use that expression. As for myself, I regard the reign of 
natural law as supreme, and if God does not manifest himself 
through the laws of nature, then God, — if there be a God, — 
must be outside of nature's domain. I am a theist. I believe 
in God, but this is outside of the issue between us. 

I note in his treatises that Dr. Hudson seems to endorse 
as truthful, the record of the remarkable powers possessed by 
Jesus, when he cast out evil spirits which had possessed some 
01 the unfortunate psychics of those times. Dr. Hudson is a 
naturalist. I don't apprehend that he believes there are any 
spirits in the spiritual world, that have not come up through 
the processes which he has pointed out in his work, from the 
oversoul of the universe, having become first men and wo- 
men, and then, through the process of death, spirits — angels. 
That some of the spirits passing from this to the other world 
are good and some are evil cannot be questioned, for death 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 6t> 

cannot be presumed to have changed the nature of a man nor 
the moral character of a person. If, therefore, the Master 
exorcised Mary Magdalen from the evil, spirits possessing her,, 
it necessarily follows that such spirits exist in the spiritual, 
world, though invisible to mortals, and may work evil and 
good through them, as opportunity is afforded. 

There are other features which clearly distinguish spirit 
control from hypnosis ; and in passing it is important to state, 
that Prof. Carpenter, the famous hypnotist, mentioned by 
Doctor Hudson as assisting in his investigations, was a spir- 
itualist. His wife was a medium, and I learned from his own 
lips, that his life-long study and practice of hypnosis, as well 
as his study of spirit phenomena, enabled him to unmistak- 
ably distinguish a case of spirit control from one of hypnosis. 

The controlling spirit does not believe that he is the med- 
ium, or that the medium is the spirit ; and in many instances* 
in my experience, which is true in that of a thousand other 
investigators, the first time a spirit effects control, much diffi- 
culty is experienced. The medium will complain of strange 
sensations as she lapses into unconsciousness, frequently - 
moans, and is ubject to convulsive action and is liable to* fall i 
from her chair. This is almost invariably preceded,, by the 
symptoms of the condition of the spirit, just before and at the 
time of death. These manifestations are often painful to < 
witness. They are never manifested in a case of hypnosis, . 
nor of hypnotic suggestion, without the direct interventionj 
ot the mind of the suggestor, bringing about these condi- 
tions. 

It is an exceedingly common occurrence, in the case o£ 
spirit control, for the spirit to express astonishment, at the 
strange circumstance in which he is placed; if it be a male 
spirit, talking through a lady medium; or, if the control is a 
female spirit, the same astonishment is expressed, that she is • 
using the organism of a man to give utterance to her 
thoughts. 

One may very naturally suppose, in the case I have men- 
tioned, of our visit to New Bedford, that the return of the 
spirit to the place of his nativity, where the incidents con- 
nected with his early life transpired, many of which were ex- 
ceedingly sad, would occasion emotions which would be 
thrown upon the medium. In this case, the medium re- 
tained her normal condition, and carried on a conversation 



66 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

with me, she giving utterance to what she clairaudiently re- 
ceived from him. 

So strongly did she sense his emotions, that she became at 
times greatly agitated, as a sensitive naturally would, sens- 
ing the emotions of one revisiting the scenes of his childhood 
under such circumstances. 

As we were turning out from Spruce Lane, she suddenly 
turned and exclaimed, "He says here is where old Aunt 
Margaret lived, who gave me a sup of milk, and a piece of 
bread and butter when I was hungry." She choked with 
emotion, and tears were flowing. Similar emotions were 
manifested at the grave-yard, when looking out upon the 
place of his mothers burial. 

Before we entered the cemetery I have referred to, among 
the names mentioned by him, of people whom he had known 
in life, as being buried there, was one by the name of Ben- 
jamin Tripp. We found the tombstone containing this 
name of Benjamin Tripp, Jr., not far from the entrance, giv- 
ing the date of birth as October 19, 1806, if I remember cor- 
rectly, and the date of death, August 17, 1879. I cannot 
give all the names and incidents from memory, but I have a 
memorandum of them which is not at hand. 

We supposed that the Benjamin Tripp whose grave we 
; had found, was the one he referred to, but he corrected us 
; ,and said, "No, this was the son of the man" he had known, 
: ,and we presently found the grave of Benjajmin Tripp, who 
•was the person whom he had known in his early life. 

Most persons have experiences of their own of a telepath- 
: ic nature. It is a common occurrence for the thought of a 
person to precede his coming into our presence. There is v 
-r. cause for this. We are as lighted candles, giving off some- 
- thing of our being wherever we go, as a candle does light. 
The material objects which are so real to us, afford no bar- 
riers to the penetration of that strange, invisible something, 
■which characterizes the personality of us all, and goes with, 
and precedes us through life. 

Thoughts have been said to be things. At any rate, the 
language we use is the best method we have, though feeble 
indeed, of giving expression to our thoughts. I have been 
taught that telepathy — : or thought transference, — is a com- 
mon method by which spirits hold converse. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 67 

Your candle throws Out a peculiar aura, which is known 
to your friends, which interblends with that of theirs, which 
immediately suggests to your friends your approach. A 
thought is born which is followed by your coming together. 
This illustrates in a general way one phase of what is denom- 
inated Telepathy. 

The Society for Psychical Research, has experimented ex- 
tensively to find to what extent thought transference could 
be carried. For instance, they place a subject in a room 
alone, with pencil and paper to draw or write as he may be 
impressed; the operators go into another room and concen- 
trate their thoughts, perhaps upon a picture, and mentally 
suggest the picture to the subject, and it has frequently oc- 
curred that he has drawn a similar picture by himself. This 
is telepathic suggestion. A thought may be thus projected, 
but it has not been found possible thus to communicate a 
discourse to the recipient. 

The organs of sight and hearing are simply nature's meth- 
ods of communicating to our inner-consciousness, surround- 
ing conditions, and the discoveries in regard to the response 
of these organs to the vibrations of light and sound, are add- 
ing to the wonders that are being unfolded in regard to our 
own being. 

Clairvoyance and clairaudience, possessed by sensitives, 
and in certain conditions at times by numerous other per- 
sons, have demonstrated the possibility of discerning events 
transpiring in very distant places. 

In my publication of the life of Mollie Fancher, I record- 
ed numerous instances of her manifestation of these powers. 

And if it be true, as demonstrated in her case, and in thou- 
sands of other instances, that the clairvoyant can see beyond 
the walls of her enclosed room, out into the street, and wit- 
ness what is transpiring, she is also entitled to the credit of 
speaking truthfully when she declares, that she see the spir- 
itual forms of her departed friends, as from time to time they 
present themselves to her, intangible though they be to the 
mortal touch, they are nevertheless there to her spiritual 
vision. She has the absolute consciousness of their pres- 
ence. We may be sure that whatever transpires, either in 
this or in the Spiritual World, will take place in harmony 
with the principles of Natural Law. The great trouble with 



68 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

humanity is, that It is often ignorant of those principles, and 
hence this discussion. 

If the illimitable linking of minds as claimed, is possible, 
so that they can be thus brought into harmonious connection 
then Telepathy will deserve to be called, Omniscience. 

The mind may r»e capable, in the infinity of time which is 
before us, of unlimited comprehension, but that it is possi- 
ble for individual minds to become so connected, that the 
knowledge possessed by each may become common, is some- 
thing which cannot rationally be accepted. 

If science is reduced to such straits to disprove the spirit- 
istic theory, then science is in distress, and may be excused 
for grasping at straws. 

In his argument, Dr. Hudson has combined truth with er- 
ror, and asks us to accept his presentation of it as being 
wholly true. I have no doubt of the correctness of some 
of his conclusions; but his weak points are distinct. 

The stone that the builders rejected has become the Head 
of the Corner, and the Temple of Spiritual Truth is becoming 
a mountain which shall fill the whole earth. (2nd ch. of 
Daniel.) 

Great cowardice is manifested by most Christian teach- 
ers in ignoring that part of the teachings of Jesus, and ot 
Paul and other early writers concerning spiritual gifts. If 
they read those passages, they avoid a senisblc interpretation 
cf their true meaning, and also of much that lias come to us 
of what Jesus taught, and of what Paul and other of the 
apostles and disciples wrote. 

The vile purpose to which psychic powers have been put, 
is no justification for condemning all psychics as unworthy 
persons, nor their communications as untrue. 

The application of that rule to other matters would not be 
tolerated. None will claim, and neither do the controls 
themselves claim, that they are not liable to error. Truth 
will ever be attained under difficulties, and what is apparent- 
ly true, must stand as true until proven otherwise. 

We have before 11 s a great realm for investigation, and we 
are wonderfully assisted, if we know we have co-opera- 
tion on the "Other Side," to assist in opening communica- 
tions between the visible and invisible realms. 

The puerile character of many of the communications com- 
ing from trance mediums, as well as their lint rust worthiness, 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 69 

"being frequently by language, diction and thought totally un- 
like what might be expected from those from whom they 
purport to emanate, warrant the conclusions usually formed, 
that they are untruthful, and disgrace the cause so strenu- 
ously advocated by Spiritualists. These criticisms are war- 
ranted, and I shall say little to excuse or palliate them, no 
matter from what source they eminate. These conditions 
are not new (See II Chron. 18 c. 19-22.) I will quote one 
verse: 

"And he said I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the 
mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, thou shalt 
entice him, and thou shalt prevail; go and do even so." (See 
Luke, 7 c 21 v.:8 c. 2 v.; I John, 4 c. 1 v.) 

Who could expect to transmit through the undeveloped 
"brain of an illiterate medium, the language and lofty inspira- 
tions of a Webster or Beecher? The communications us- 
ually are characterized by the personality of the mediums; 
and those ignorant of the laws of spirit control, at once con- 
demn the whole is fraudulent. Not until the brain of the 
psychic is well developed, and can respond in appropriate lan- 
guage to the thoughts of the controlling spirit, will trance- 
mediumship attain the eminence to which it is destined. 
Testing the truthfulness of every spirit before giving it abso- 
lute credence, is always advisable. 

For long periods of time, Jewish history teaches that the 
voice of prophets was still, and the people longed for one to 
rise, to whom they could go for consolation in distress, and 
-for wisdom when perplexed with doubts. Joel said, "And 
it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my spir- 
it upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall pro- 
phesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young 
men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and hand- 
maids in those days will I pour out my spirit." (Joel 2 c. 28- 
29 v.: also Acts 2 c. 17-18 v.) Following the crucifixion of 
Jesus, his disciples continued to manifest to the world the 
spiritual gifts which had been given them, but they were lost 
Avhen the priesthood stoned and put the seers to death. How 
few clergymen will say to those who mourn for the dead, "I 
know there is no death to your loved ones, they live and can 
come again to you, and will abide with you if you prepare 
your heart and home to receive them." Christianity as 
taught by its founders is well, but it will never convert the 



70 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

world while ignoring a part of the commands of the Master. 
The Seance Room should be the Holy of Holies; the most 
sacred of places. Spiritualists have made it a dark chamber, 
rather than a place of sacred light. They have made the 
phenomena an idol, and have cast Christ out of their syna- 
gogues. They deny God, and have substituted Nature in 
His place, and present the world with a Soulless Universe. 
No wonder people ask, "Can any good come out of Naza- 
reth?" Yet, for all this, there will a time come, when some 
one will rise up and separate the pure from the corrupt, and 
by Works, by Faith and Truthful Teachings, bring the relig- 
ions of the world into accord, and the human family into a 
Universal Brotherhood, through the serene spirit of Christ, 
which was before the earth was formed, and will continue, 
when it ceases to be the habitation of man. 



ERRATUM. 
In my illustration of Dr. Hudson's theory, that telepathy 
would account for the medium's knowledge of John Taylor 
and the events in his life, I have supposed a case to the effect 
that some living person, with whom the medium is acquaint- 
ed, has heard from some other persons whom she does not 
know, all that she has given as coming directly to her from 
John Taylor himself. This illustration fails to make clear 
the stretch of credence. Dr. Hudson demands, as he claims 
that if Jones knew John Taylor in his -life time, and Jones 
knew Smith, and Smith knew Brown, and Brown knew 
Green, and Green knew White and White knew the medium, 
this linking of minds would account for the correct state- 
ments by the medium of the facts given by her concerning 
John Taylor. Dr. Hudson's claim is in effect, that it is only 
necessary that the first named of all these persons— Mr. 
Jones— should have known John Taylor, and that the last 
named, Mr. White, should know the medium. As already 
stated, the medium knows of no person through whom this 
connection can be made. A. "■• ^' 




HON. LUTHER R. MARSH, 

OF MIDDLETOWN, N. Y. 



SPIRITISM, TELEPATHY AND MRS. PIPER. 



BY HON. LUTHER R. MARSH, OF MIDDLETOWN, N. Y. 



The Hon. Luther R. Marsh, who had been invited to at- 
tend the December session of the Medico-Legal Society and 
its Psychological Section, was unable to be present, but sent 
his views in the form of a letter to the President of the Med- 
ico-Legal Society ?s follows: 

10 Benton Ave., Middletown, N. Y. 

December 16, 1901. 

My Dear Mr. Bell. — You know my views on Spiritualism, 
and you know something of the years I have spent in inves- 
tigating its phenomena; of the unusual advantage I have en- 
joyed for its study; and you know, too, of the unmixed desire 
and intent I have had to learn the real, absolute truth; and 
you know what qualilcations I brought to the investigation. 

I do not wish to discuss the Piper Episode. I have never 
icgarded her as an uncommon psychic. I have never read 
any message through her, which seemed to me above the 
common-place. But she is perfectly honest, I have no 
doubt; — not the slightest. She believes what she says. 
When in a full trance she is utterly unconscious of what has 
been spoken through her; and when she comes to herself, 
she has no memory of what has taken place. It is natural 
that she should be incredulous. She cannot realize as true 
what she hears said as to what has been transmitted through 
her. I do not wonder at it at all; nor does her dissent, or 
her ignorance, have the slightest influence on me as bearing 
on the fact and truthfulness of her communications. That 
these messages have been given by a power outside of her 
own powers; that they are infused into her mind, or spoken 
to her inner ear, and that she has interpreted or delivered 
them, just as they were given to her, I do not permit myself 

Read by title at December meeting, 190 r, and announced to be read at 
March meeting. IQ02. Medico-Legal Society in joint session with the 
Psychological Section of that body. 



'72 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

to doubt. That all the proceedings with her, and by her, 
including the entire conduct of the learned savants, who have 
sought her mediumistic aid, have been carried on in perfect 
integrity, and with an earnest desire to learn the absolute 
truth; and to avoid all fallacies and phantoms, I have no 
manner of doubt or of suspicion 

The lessons learned from these laborious and long contin- 
ued experiments, are valuable, instructive and true, beyond 
any hesitation of mine to believe. And yet they seem to me 
to be lessons in the incipiency of the Science, Religion, or 
Philosophy, as you may choose to call it. To me, it is all 
three. 

The experiments which I have seen; the messages I have 
received; the scenes I have witnessed; the lofty and divine 
communications vouchsafed to me, are, — and for many years 
have been — of an order so superior, so much loftier in 
thought, in eloquence, in expression, to any thing I have 
heard as coming through the lips of this lady, that I have 
not felt much interest in the experiments through her, except 
as valuable to beginners in the study of the great mystery. 

The universal assault upon me by the unanimous press of 
this whole country and of Europe, some years ago, in my 
first attempt to disclose something of my teachings to the 
world; — a journalistic cyclone of abuse, vituperation, misrep- 
resentation, derision and caricaturism — while it did not dis- 
turb me at all, nor ruffle a hair, has disinclined me to put be- 
fore the public the results of my experiences. 

All deep occult ratiocination, all profound suggestions, all 
doubts of scientists, and speculations of philosophers, all ar- 
guments of skeptics, are idle talk to me, in view of what mine 
eyes have seen, my ears heard, my fingers touched, my judg- 
ment approved. I have confidence in myself. I consider that 
my education at the Bar, through more than half a century 
in investigating facts, in balancing proofs, in discriminating 
questions of principle, has given me confidence in judging of 
matters under my own personal cognizance. I do not ask 
anyone else to pin any faith in me. I am speaking of my 
confidence in my own capacity to judge for myself, and in my 
own pure integrity of purpose. 

Science! I do not believe "Science is God," as I once heard 
<l Spiritual lecturer declare. I honor science as highly as any 
one can. I acknowledge the countless blessings it has 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. ?3 

•showered on humanity. But, after all, what is Science? It 
does not create. It is a mere observer. It takes account 
of phenomena, and classifies them. That's all. 

If God had not created Nature, Science would have had 
nothing to observe, or operate upon. There are different 
kinds of science; real science, and science, as Bacon said, 
"falsely so-called." 

A great deal is said about a scientific investigation of 
Spiritualism. Every man and woman who has eyes, ears, 
and common sense, is a Scientist in Spiritualistic manifesta- 
tions. Why cannot the subject be treated like any other? 
Why assume that, while, in the common affairs of life, every 
thing is as it seems, yet, every thing of a Spiritual nature is 
to be presumed fraudulent? I am bold and audacious en- 
ough to believe that I am as good a judge of what I see, and 
•hear, and know, — just as wise and reliable a scientist in that 
respect — as if I had spent years on years in a careful examin- 
ation of weights and measures, or in the mysteries of astron- 
omy, botany, mineralogy, chemistry, mathematics, logic or 
any other science or art, known in the world. If I see a 
man, a woman, or know a fact, or witness a transaction, I do 
not need a learned student or professor to bring it clearly 
to my consciousness. 

The proposition that seems to form the basis of Mr. Hud- 
son's paper may seem justified to him, from the limited range 
of his inquiries and the lower order of his facts; from,indeed, 
the messages derived from Mrs. Piper, but, in my judgment 
:it utterly fails in the vast experiences which have come to me. 

His conclusion that all the messages received by sensitives 
have been telepathically acguired,and that, if the sensitive can 
telepathically impart them, it follows thaf'Spiritism, considered 
ai a scientific proposition, has not a leg to stand upon; for 
not a case has yet been recorded that cannot be telepathical- 
ly explained, if that simple proposition is true," is a state- 
ment utterly opposed, in all its parts, to my own experiences, 
my own convictions, my own knowledge. It cannot stand 
:a moment. It has not even a toe to stand on. It is an as- 
sumption utterly unjustified. 

Mr. Hudson's' thesis is an evident attempt to maintain 
;a pet theory; and though he sometimes seems to take an at- 
titude of equilibrium, yet there constantly peeps out an an- 
imus of antagonism, and sneering insinuations, and unfair 



74 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

suggestions, that prove the partisan nature of his argument.- 
I have not time, dear Bell, to point out the unjust and partial 
allusions, assumptions and implications, and to show how 
one-sided the article is; nor to specify the wholesale asser- 
tions, wholly unfounded, from which I, a Spiritualist, most 
emphatically dissent. 

Mr. Hudson assumes that no information has ever been 
given by a medium which did not exist, already, in the mind 
ci the sitter; an assumption he has no authority for making. 
Then he assumes that what is in the secret and unsuspected 
recesses of the sitter's mind,can be,without the sitter's know- 
ing of it, telepathicallv conveyed to the mind of the medium;, 
who reads it out as a spiritual communication. This seems 
a desperate effort to evade an obvious fact; obvious to every 
one but a scientific savant. The medium, some way, by 3 
telepathic touch, stirs into activity the endless arcana of. 
knowledge that somehow got into the sitter's mind, — nobody- 
knows how, — and wholly unsuspected by him, and lo! there 
i;: unfolded to her vision the whole domain, natural or spirit^ 
ual, of all that was ever known. This is science run mad!' 
The sitter, it seems, has two minds in one body; — in one 
spirit or soul; — one, an outside or overcoat mind, of very 
limited powers and accumlations, fitted only for ordinary 
transactions; the other, an interior, hidden, subliminal, sub- 
jective mind, filled, chuck-full, with all things that have ever" 
transpired in the world, and in the spirit sphere, and which, 
like holding certain writings to the fire, come out in bold re- 
lief, though unconsciously, and while keeping the owner in 
Egyptian darkness, illuminates the medium. Why stop at 
two minds," as well, just as well, have many minds, one, say,, 
for each phrenological bump. Yet when the partnership be- 
tween body and spirit is dissolved, clairvoyants see only one 
form rise from the casket. 

How the sitter, — who may pass for an ignorant, uneduca- 
ted man, acquired, ''unbeknownst" to himself, or to anybody 
else, these vast store-houses of knowledge; — having never 
bestowed a thought on the subject, in his waking moments* 
is a bewildering mystery. In the Piper case, she had, ac- 
cording to Hudson, an uncommon source of information in' 
the well-stored subliminal mind of Prof. Hyslop, and, if so, 
some might wonder that she did not evoke some lofty spirit- 
ual thought, more worthy of record. Professor Hyslop 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 75 

didn't know how much he knew! why should he spend labor- 
ious days and weary nights, in studying", when he has only to 
tap,telepathically,his own exhaustless, subjective stores,open 
his concealed knowledge box; lift his subliminal knowledge 
"above the threshold of normal consciousness," bring his se- 
cret information out of his subjective cellar into the light, 
and flood the world! 

Much attention seems to have been given to minor mate- 
rial details, such as jacknives, nails, skull-caps, relatives, dis- 
eases; — things which it might be supposed would not be 
carefully carried in the memory of a spirit introduced into 
a new world, of a wholly different character, and with new 
surroundings and associates; — where such little immaterial 
details of an abandoned earth-life were not of the slightest 
consequence, and not worth remembering. 

Give a man a chance to assume what he wants; to lay 
down his own premises; to set up his own man of straw; and 
feeble must be his muscles if he cannot demolish it with a 
blow. So, Hudson fulminates his broad assertions, unsup- 
ported by any authority but his own assumptions. In his- 
views, how crystal clear it all is! Hyslop, all the time, had 
this information in the secret chest of his subjective mind; 
Piper points a telepathic finger at the lock, and out comes 
the overflowing knowledges to enlighten mankind. Eu- 
clid's demonstrations are unsatisfactory in comparison! 

My Beloved Clark Bell,---a wee bit of faith — a mere sus- 
picion of it — a soupcon — would not, it seems to me, do any 
harm, in the consideration of spiritual themes. But that is- 
a quality which, I perceive, is wholly discarded, by these 
great intellects, which, as they think, are sufficient unto 
themselves. He, from whom these intellects are derived, is 
an unknown factor, in their discussions; His messengers are 
disregarded, and everything is brought down to a purely 
natural plane. One would not suspect, throughout the whole 
debate, that there was any God, or any spiritual intuition. 
A very respectable thinker, — one of remarkable spiritual 
insight, — -once said: 

'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned." 

I do not present my views to you, Dear Clark, as having 
any reference to the Piper manifestations, or the Hyslop re- 



76 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

port, for they all seem to me to be very inadequate, and not 
rising to the greatness of the theme, or the demonstrations 
o: fact. And if Mr. Hudson had confined himself to an 
answer to them, I would not have troubled you with any ex- 
pression or dissent of my own. 

It is astonishing how ingenious men can confuse, distort 
and entangle the plainest facts. There seems to be nothing 
but what can be plausibly argued against. Specious argu- 
ments have been put forth, proving that Napoleon Bonaparte 
was a myth, never having had any real existence. But I 
have faith in the "Little Corporal;" and I have faith in the 
messages and manifestations I have received, through years, 
from the spirits of those who once lived on this earth plane 
in the flesh, and who now are residents of the spirit spheres. 
I see no explanation of them in telepathy, nor in the theory 
of subliminal consciousness, of subjective mind, of secret 
accumulations of knowledge, of strained and occult fancies, 
or bold assumptions, nor in the memory of the other mind, 
which, it is supposed, really exists, inside, outside, or along 
side, of what we have been accustomed to consider as our 
only mind. 

Strange how people will puzzle their brains, and sit up 
nights, to study out some mode of avoiding, paddling around, 
cr explaining, the clearest, plainest facts of consciousness, if, 
only, such facts have any relation to that life to which all 
mortals tend! 

My Dear Clark, I opened your package, this evening, and, 
taking up the galleys of Mr. Hudson's article, read it, and sat 
immediately down to the table, and hastily wrote down the 
foregoing suggestions started by his screed. 

I then took up your own galley, and, if I had read that 
"before, I probably should not have written anything on the 
subject. 

I must confess myself somewhat surprised at your unqual- 
ified avowal in regard to spiritual manifestations. 

But I have experienced the futility of trying, by argu- 
ment, to convince anybody in spiritual themes. Each looks 
through his own lens. 

Yours ever and most decidedly, 

LUTHER R. MARSH. 




H. C. WRIGHT, 
CORRY, PA. 



SPIRITISM, TELEPATHY AND MRS. PIPER. 



BY H. C. WRIGHT, EDITOR OF KLTKA. 



Mr. H. C. Wright, the editor of the Journal Eltka, who 
was invited to attend the meeting of the Psychological Sec- 
tion of the Medico-Legal Society in joint session with the 
parent body, unable to be present, responded as follows: — 

Corry, Pa., Dec. 16, 1901. 
Mr. Clark Bell, 39 Broadway, New York. 

Dear Sir. — Your letter of invitation to attend the annual meeting 
of the Medico-Legal Society was duly received, and I wish to ex- 
press my sincere appreciation of your kindness. I regret being 
obliged to state that it will be impossible for me to attend. The 
pressure of my work at present also makes it impossible for me to 
properly prepare a paper expressing my views and the evidence upon 
which they are based ; this I would gladly have done had there 
been better opportunity. My conclusions have been arrived at as 
the result of personal experience and actual demonstration, rather 
than from book study; that is, I have endeavored to verify (or oth- 
erwise), all accounts before admitting them to my belief. I have 
studied and practiced hypnotism, in private, the past twelve years, 
and an important part of my experimental work has been with a 
"psychic" ("medium," sensitive," or whatever term you prefer) who- 
is also unknown, in that capacity, to the general public (a gentle- 
man, who, for sometime, was professor of Chemistry and Physics in 
the Meadville, Pa., High School). In our work we have reproduc- 
ed, under absolutely satisfactory circumstances, practically all the 
phenomena mentioned in the paper by Camille Flamarion, which ap- 
peared in the December, 1897, Arena. Also have taken reports of 
the Society for Psychical Research, and in telepathic work have in 
some instances, we believe, improved upon them. 

A part of my views might be briefly expressed as follows: 

Either the theory of telepathy or the theory of spiritism will ac- 
count for all the communications received by Mrs. Piper, and sim- 
ilar cases. 

Telepathy, considered as communications between living brain, or 
action of the "subjective mind," can account for all communications, 
even for that which gives facts "known" only to a deceased person, 
because the fact may have been telepathically communicated to the 
"subjective mind" of living persons before the decease of first per- 
son; the fact being later communicated telepathically from the per- 
son who is unconscious of being the holder of the knowledge to the 
"sensitive" who is able to make it known. 

The view as entertained by many, that the "sub-conscious mind" 
is under control of, or susceptible to suggestion from the "conscious 
mind" is, I believe, in exact opposition to the facts. I hold that 
the "conscious mind" is completely under control of the "sub-con^ 



/O SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

scious;" or, to get nearer to my meaning, the "conscious mind" is 
not a thing in itself, but merely a manifestation of the "sub-con- 
sciousness." 

In regard to Spiritism: 

I believe that existence is perpetual. 

That the change which takes place at death is, to our present 
-mind, inconceivable. 

That we do not take with us, in its present form, our mind, intel- 
lect, emotions, etc., any more than we take with us our present body. 

That we do merge into a universal "consciousness" (though here 
the word "consciousness" cannot express the idea.) 

That this universal (which already includes us), may and does 
manifest itself through "Psychics," like Mrs. Piper (and everyone 
else) ; and this manifestation is limited only by our ability to com- 
prehend. 

I believe "mediums," in their highest development, cease to be 
"controlled" by a "personality." (I think this will eventually be the 
case with Mrs. Piper.) 

I will be pleased in the future to send you reports of experiments 
which we conduct, when they are of such a nature as to be of in- 
terest to you; and should you find it convenient to send me a re- 
port of the proceedings of the present meeting I should be greatly 
indebted to you. 

I regret that I have not been able to collect a more valuable letter 
:£or you. Thanking you once more for your kindness, I am 

Yours sincerely, 

H. C. WRIGHT. 




ELEANOR G RIDLEY, 

CHICAGO, ILL. 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATION VS. MENTAL TELEPATHY. 



BY ELEANOR GRIDLEY, OF CHICAGO. 



Mr. Thomson Hudson, according to his standpoint, has 
• closed the gate of investigation, research and information 
{from the premise of Spirit communication by first stating 
-that all psychic phenomena is physical manifestation; or 
rather that all occcult phenomena is but the prescience of 
"the subliminal self" as Myers puts it; the power of the ego 
or higher self to know all things. 

If this be so and this subjective self is omniscient, then why 
limit its power, simply to that period of time, more or less, 
in which it dwells or is anchored to its earthly temple? Does 
it not strike the thoughtful individual that anything so pow- 
erful can be constituted so ephemeral? 

The Society for Psychical Research, composed of learned 
men — scholars — who are wont to weigh well, deep questions, 
have just finisned a series of psychical investigations with 
Mrs. Leonora Piper as the pricipal witness in the case. 
These men who have investigated with rare earnestness, sub- 
ject to rigid methods, which left no loop hole for careless or 
unscientific research to creep in, have many of them been 
■converted to the belief that much of the phenomena was gen- 
uine spirit communication. 

In the first place, let us reason together and try to discover 
what this subliminal self, higher self, or human Ego is ; for A 
it is omniscient, able to impart information and capable of 
discrimination and discovery, then it should know its consti- 
tution, purpose and ultimate end, either through self-knowl- 
edge or absorption from other entities or Egos. 

Upon consulting standard works I find that Ego, the I, or 
the me, means "indviduality, personality." Individuality is 
defined as follows : "The quality or state of being distinct or 
individual. Sharply marked temperament. Personality im- 



Contributed to the discussion of Mr. Thomson J. Hudson's paper read 
before the Psychological Section of the Medico- Legal Society. 



80 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

plies particular characteristics; that which constitutes an in- 
dividual, a distinct person; existence as a thinking- being." I 
am overwhelmed with a cloud of witnesses and am obilged to 
accept the inevitable, for no matter,how much effort one makes 
to avoid it, one cannot escape the reality of one's own ego- 
hood, or that which makes us say I. 

The Ego, the real self, the I, is the individual as an object 
to his own reflective consciousness — the person as a distinct 
individual, the man reviewed by his own cognition, as the 
subject of all his mental phenomena, the agent of his own 
activities, the subject of his own feelings, and the possessor 
of his own faculties and his own characteristics. 

Now let us consider this ego as to the possiblity or prob- 
ability of both premises or either premise, the final extinction 
of that wonderful ego or the immortality of that supreme self- 
hood. Does it depend upon anatomical construction to be able 
to perform its activities, display and elaborate its characteris- 
tics? Are these extensive and subdivisible manifestations 
of the total self or Ego merely dependent on cerebral 
changes; thus purely material and absolutely subject to physi- 
cal laws, and with the dissolution of the body ceases to be, 
ceases to exist? Is this powerful seF a creation subordinate to 
its environment — to circumstances, to inheritance, to fate — 
and like its physical mate, the body, amenable also to the 
same natural laws and subject to the same fate — annihilation? 

Is the Ego an indescribable and incomprehensible thing, 
susceptible to the opposite condition — and ascending is 
merged or absorbed into that from whence it came, no wiser, 
no happier, no better, a senseless, unknowing essence, its 
state or condition infinite bliss, eternal repose, in fact oblit- 
eration, a term synonymus to annihilation? 

Or again, is the Ego independent of the body and does it 
possess the power to transmigrate into the bodies of other 
animals of a lower order thus descending the scale, or upon 
the other hand does the ego upon its release seek to live 
again in the old scenes and in order to do so, take up 
its habitation in a new human body, and therefore in one 
sense ascends the scale, because of its past experiences, and 
its return based upon the universal law of progress. 

Or lastly, does not the Ego rise from out tne trammels and 
bondage of flesh, and asserting its omnipotence and eternal 
power, silently sweeping through realms of illimitable space,- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 



81 



with the speed of the electric messenger, pausing now here,, 
now there, to exchange greetings with other released egos,, 
then rushing onward, to tell the story of its liberation, its 
freedom, to the loved ones still in bondage, know that 
"When all shall stand transfigured like Christ, on Hermon 

Hill 
And moving each to music, soul in soul and light in light* 
Shall flash thro' one another in a moment as we will?'* 

Anything which is important for man to know can sooner 
or later be known by the power of inductive reasoning, either 
in physical or psychical laws, and a psychic fact is just as 
much a fact as any other fact, and science has no more right 
to ignore one than the other ; in fact no fact in nature can be 
safely ignored, for no fact is wholly insignificant. 

The right of the psychical or spiritual world to speak of its 
own phenomena is as secure as the right of the natural world 
to speak of itself. 

By the observation of a series of physical phenomena we 
are able to predict with confidence that the law which pro- 
duces a certain phenomena is as fixed and exact and absolute, 
as any law of mathematics. 

In the realm of psychic phenomena "We look not at ther 
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; 
for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things 
which are not seen are eternal." The visible is the ladder 
tip to the invisible ; the temporal is but the scaffold of the 
eternal. The innumerable and marvelous phenomena of the 
powers and faculties of the Ego are so wonderful and com- 
plex that one pauses in sheer amazement and asks the ques- 
tion, W 7 hat is its limit and where is its limit? We reply 
there is no limit for though harnessed to its vehicle of flesh,, 
it even now has the power to do whatever it wills to do. 
The Ego in this state has the power to move ponderable 
bodies, otherwise known as levitation — simply by the exer- 
tion of will power. Will is the motive force, it chooses when 
stimulated by desire, and therefore its will is strong in pro- 
portion to its desire regarding any particular object. It has 
the power to dominate the will of other Egos and compel 
them to do its bidding. It also has the power to read the 
minds of other Egos — to see the thought of others (clair- 
voyance), the power to hear the thoughts of others (clairau- 
-dience), and to express its own thought as well as those of 



$2 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

•others by its physical apparatus either orally or through the 
medium of the pen. This Ego, steeped in all the delicate 
joy of tender emotions, thrills to the intensity and volume of 
song, expands in the joyous possession of freedom, revels in 
the ecstasy of love and in the embrace of tender compassion, 
sinks into that peace which passeth all understanding. 

Now the intelligent investigator knows that the Ego has 
communicated facts of incidents hundreds of miles distant 
and to the receptive Ego or soul has given a clear and per- 
fect statement of the events while this information may have 
been sent or projected at the moment of occurrence or defer- 
red some hours. It has beheld the ego of the other individual 
and foretold its coming or visitation. It has sensed the alarm 
and disquietude of a loved one and with its undying and 
eternal power has calmed the fear and restored peace to the 
troubled soul. 

The manifestations of this Ego are innumerable and the 
differentiations of its power are beyond conception to mortal 
ken. Now if this thinking, palpipating throbbing entity can 
transmute its intelligence when circumscribed by physical en- 
vironment, then why cannot it display an equal if not super- 
for intelligence when freed from bondage? And if not, why 
not? This conscious potentiality which has lived or existed 
in connection with its physical mate has always displayed an 
intense and passionate desire to retain its individuality, its 
self-preservation. Jesus expressed the strength and inten- 
sity of that desire when He said, "What shall it profit a man 
if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" 

.' this Ego, or man is indestructible and has really an eter- 
nal existence in its own right, it must be independent of 
form or limitation, and can therefore go or come as the de- 
sire leadeth. Without further question or argument, I 
shall only recognize the immortality and intelligent contin- 
uitv of the Ego, and its power to communicate either direct- 
ly to the individual, or through the circumscribed indivdiual. 
Now that this be so, let us take into consideration the con- 
stitution of the vehicle or instrument through which the dis- 
embodied intelligence communicates, and we shall no doubt 
have solved many perplexing questions and misgivings. 

We are first met with the supposedly embarrassing state- 
ment that the intelligence has deteriorated since its advent 
into spirit life, because of the fact that the communications 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 83 

purporting to come from a former distinguished denizen of 
earth is below the intelligence of the ordinary man. And 
again it is discovered that other statements, — made by these 
supposedly disembodied entities are false, misleading, inac- 
curate or garbled. Granted to be true, all of these state- 
ments, and yet they can be accounted for simply through the 
law of conformity to the type. Whatever individuality is 
sought and used as the excarnate ego's vehicle of expression, 
thus by its free choice the Ego is obliged to conform to its se- 
lection, and the power of its thought, its quality and quantity 
and the language by which the thought is expressed, is now 
limited and circumscribed by the power of the medium to 
comprehend, to translate and to communicate. 

The artist or the musician may be ever so great, even the 
greatest exponent of his special art that the world has ever 
known, and yet, with a low grade, imperfect instrument, or 
crude, ill-fashioned tools, this great master is utterly unable 
to produce that high standard of perfection which, under 
good conditions he is perfectly capable of achieving. 

That false or unreliable statements are made by the medi- 
um is also another undisputed fact. Why should it be oth- 
erwise, for if the medium is untruthful, dishonest, unreliable 
or imaginary, how can the message be freed from this condi- 
tion? A stream of water can rise no higher than its source — 
neither can the quality of thought be other than the consti- 
tution through which it flows. However purified the gar- 
ment, or however whitened it may be it will become 
spotted, discolored and grimed by contact with soiled 
or blackened objects, and so with thought communication, it 
is also contaminated in its flight through poisonous channels. 

We again are also told that the mediums or instruments 
through whom the intelligence is transmitted has never given 
any information other than the knowledge of that which re- 
sides in the mind of one or more present. That statement 
seems to me quite misleading for I could give hundreds of in- 
stances in which absolutely unknown and unknowable infor- 
mation was given to me. Many people have also made to me 
this same statement ;but as that is only hearsay evidence (and 
not admissible in courts of justice and equity), I will confine 
my illustrations to my own personal knowledge. I have re- 
ceived prophetic information many times through spirit com- 
munication direct to self or through some other instrument. 



84 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

This information was communicated to me, in many in- 
stances, as many as twenty years in advance of the actual oc- 
currences. The details were minutely described, the per- 
sons named, in a number of instances then unknown to me. 
The results were so clearly and positively emphasized, that 
had I then been well grounded in the knowledge of spirit 
return, it seems to me I could have prevented the calamities 
which ensued and were enacted at the time and place so 
stated. In lieu of these experiences, I cannot argue that all 
psychic information is obtained or selected by the sensitive 
from some one at hand, or of not at hand, still present in 
the corporeal body of the material man who is somewhere 
on the earth plane. 

I believe that spirit return is a demonstrated fact, but its 
value will be seen to be dependent upon its relation to other 
facts of equal importance. When we, hereupon the earth 
plane have developed to a high degree of intelligence and 
soul unfoldment, then will we not only attract those spirits 
who have achieved true immortality, but we will also be able 
to translate in purity of language and correct expression, 
their messages. 

And such is the possibility open to those who are capable 
of understanding, and who are willing to receive and reveal 
the great and wonderful truths brought to earth by spirit man. 

"It is God's promised blessing, set 
Before the Coming race. 

Our children's children's children yet 
May see it face to face; 

But we, the masters of To-day, 

Must see the light and lead the way." 




T. D. CROTHERS. If. D., 

hartford, conn., 
Vice-President Medico-Legal Society. 



SPIRITISM, TELEPATHY, HYPNOTISM AND THE 
CASE OF MRS. PIPER. 



BY T. D. CROTHERS, M. D., OF HARTFORD, CONN., 
Vice President Medico-Legal Society. 



To one who makes the mental phenomena of spirit and 
drug takers a study, a field of most bewildering psychic 
movements appear. The laws of dissolution become so 
sharply defined, as to bring into prominence laws of evolu- 
tion, and signs of unknown psychic forces. Theories of ex- 
planation termed spiritism, telepathy, clairvoyance, sublimi- 
nal consciousness, and so on, are illustrated by numerous 
examples in this field, which separately sustain widely differ- 
ent theories, but collectively bring confusion to the subiect. 
The persons in whom these examples occur are called bor- 
der-liners, or those who live on the frontier of insanity, and 
whose mental health varies widely. As illustrative of some 
of the phenomena frequently noted, the following may be 
given: A spirit drinker after a prolonged attack believes he 
is about to die; the friends are gathered about the bedside; he 
talks of the spirit world, and describes the condition of 
friends over there, repeating their advice to the living:. He 
is considered a medium of great power, and his communica- 
tions are accepted as conclusive evidence of spiritism. 

An opium smoker has similar periods of great mental and 
emotional exhaltation, during which he utters most startling 
predictions of coming events, and which occasionally happen 
.as predicted. He is also a medium, and spirits talk and write 
through him to their friends here. He describes persons 
and events that seem beyond his knowledge and experience, 
and after a few hours of this mental ectasy, he sleeps awak- 
ing later a stupid, dull man. Other persons using spirits or 
drugs to excess will not infrequently have what is called de- 
liriums of great mental exhaltation (of brief duration,) in 
which they will make statements and describe events that are 
unexplainable. 



86 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

When these deliriums are extreme in wildness, there will 
occur flashes of good judgment and superior reasoning, that 
seem like intuition. Predictions of themselves and their 
friends; of what should be done, and the results that follow 
are most startling in accuracy. Instances like the following 
are not uncommon: A wife, mother, or other relative of an 
inebriate will be able to follow them in a large city; tell where 
they are at a certain time of day. The inebriate may not 
have been heard from directly in many days, and there can 
be no reason for locating them in any particular place, and 
yet we have been written to send a man to such a place to 
find him. 

A father who was a drinking man came from San Francis- 
co to find his son, who was also a drinking man and who had 
disappeared some months before, and supposed to have gone 
to Europe. 

The father was confident that his son would reach New 
York on a certain day, and go to New Haven the day follow- 
ing. He came to Hartford to arrange for his son's admis- 
sion to our hospital, then went to New Haven and found his 
son as expected twenty-four hours later. In this the father 
had no visible clue, or means of knowing the movements of 
his son. His habit was to drink to a semi-stuporous stage, 
and then tell where his son was, and what be was doing. The 
son was an extremely erratic, genteel tramp, who drank 
some all the time, but was seldom stupid. There seemed to 
be a certain affinity with the father after a certain stasre in 
the drinking was reached, but before that they were mentally 
antagonistic. A man of some prominence in his profession, 
and highly cultivated, was a periodical drinker, and after he 
began to drink, he would dictate to his clerk several days in 
advance his movements and personal happenings, which 
would occur. This would be carried out literally, and the 
predictions of what would happen to him were equally exact 
and startling in fulfillment. The explanation by his friends 
included many theories of spiritism, clarivoyance and sub- 
liminal consciousness. 

Opium and other drug delusional states bring out many 
mysterious facts of the movement of psychic forces, along 
the lines of dissolution. Several persons are confident that 
studies from this side are valuable, and that they will 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 87 

disclose many facts. From my own experience the phenom- 
ena manifested by the disordered brain, fails to supoort any 
one theory of spiritism, or telepathy, but rather points to 
forces and laws infinitely more complex and less simple. 
The very close resemblance of the mind reader, the medium, 
and the hypnotist, to those who live on the frontiers of in- 
sanity, suggest phases of dissolution, rather than evolution 
in the higher activities. 

So much of the strange and mysterious in mental phenom- 
ena is due to physical causes, that the elimination of errors 
from this source is extremely difficult. Hence it follows that 
any credulous story of phenomena used to support 
a theory of psychic forces and laws, is open to question and 
doubt. As in observations of the heavens, both the observer,, 
the means of observation, and the phenomena studied, all 
need verifying,and correction by others,before they can be ac- 
cepted as facts, or even approximate facts. Mrs. Piper's 
manifestations and the critical study by Professor Hyslop 
should be received as probable evidence needing further 
study and examination, and while apparently supporting the 
theories of telepathy, are not conclusive. 

Theories of mind reading and spirit influences of departed 
friends, clairvoyance and subliminal self, are too simple; the 
psychic forces and laws which govern brain action extend far 
beyond these narrow limits. The recent explanation of the 
great facts of electrical waves in wireless telegraphy give 
distinct hints of what is called physical forces, which may ex 
tend into the psychic, and perhaps is another form of force 
emanating from the brain, as well as from the generated 
electricity. 

The form of transmission of thought depends on the pro- 
pulsion of certain electrical waves whose vibrations are in 
exact rhythm,and strike on a receiver arranged to respond to 
the same rate of vibration. When the instrument to send 
the current, and the one to receive it, are timed or arranged 
on the same key, the transmission of the vibrations which 
are formed into words, go on irrespective of distance. These 
intangible shocks or waves of force, are read on receivers 
keyed to catch them. Thought may be projected and read 
by minds tuned to the same rhythm, regardless of space and 
physical obstacles. 



SS SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

For a long time the X-Ray, produced by an electrical cur- 
rent, was supposed to be a most wonderful light penetrating 
substance, and enabling us to see what was previously un- 
known. Recently this ray was found not to depend on ma- 
-chines for its production, but to exist in many substances in 
the earth, which can be demonstrated in the laboratory. It is 
called a crystallized solidified light, stored up from past 
ages, which from treatment in the laboratory can be made to 
give out its rays, furnishing a supply of light that is inex- 
haustible. Professor Thompson says a thousand grains of 
this illuminating earth on the ceiling of a room would furn- 
ish light for centuries. Yet this is nothing compared with 
the storing, reception, and emanating forces of the brain. 
The great waves of public opinion which dominate the vears 
and ages, and the rise and growth of ideas and thought, are 
riot accidents, but the operation of unknown forces. As *n 
wireless telegraphy, and the X-Ray, there is something 
more than the course medium for the transmission ot 
thought. The batteries of the brain, and the force generator*- 
and receivers, are yet to be discovered. The effort to make 
the phenomena explain and support a theory is not scienti- 
fic. Mrs. Piper's ability to do what is unexolainable from 
our present limited knowledge, only deepens the mystery, 
and rouses keener interest to be informed of the laws and 
movements of thought. The Society for Psychical Reheard* 
is approaching this realm on the side of exact science. It is 
in this field that medico-legal studies are most practical. The 
grouping of the exact facts, and their analysis and meaning, 
will show the laws which enabled Mrs. Piper to make answer 
to questions that seemed beyond her knowledge. The Scotch 
verdict of "not proven, H can be urged with scientific accuracy 
to-day, and we wait for farther particulars necessary for con- 
clusive evidence. 





ALEXANDER WILDER. M. D 

NEWARK. N J. 



TELEPATHY, SPIRITISM, HYPNOTISM AND THE 
CASE OF MRS. ELENORA E. PIPER. 



BY ALEXANDER WILDER, M. D., OF NEWARK, N. J. 



The case of Mrs. Piper is comparatively simple, if we can 
fairly understand the premises. These belong unequivocally 
to the department of mesmerism. I prefer the use of this 
term instead of the one which has been dragged from the 
Greek language and misapplied, to evade giving due credit 
to the man who introduced the art and science to the notice 
of the world. The same reason which warrants the applying 
•of the names of Volta, Galvani and Faraday to their discover- 
ies, is entitled to equal force in the case of Anton Mesmer. 
It seems to me superlatively mean and base to pirate a man's 
work and refrain from giving him honest credit. This, to be 
sure, has been done in other departments of knowledge, nev- 
ertheless I think that for this once we can afford to do hon- 
orably. 

It was early perceived in mesmeric experiments that the 
physical sensibility and even the reasoning faculty of the indi- 
vidual were more or less suspended,and that he became in a 
greater or less degree participant in the thoughts and percep- 
tions of the mesmeriser. This occurred according as there 
was produced a partial or complete rapport between the two. 
In many instances there were such results as trance, intui- 
tion, somnambulism, clairvoyance, etc. In these cases we 
have had many wonderful disclosures which purported to 
•come from other spheres of life. In the condition of trance, 
however, it was produced; this has been no uncommon oc- 
currence. The works of Emanuel Swedenborg are signifi- 
cant evidences from the fact that he, while in a state of 
trance, received numerous communications which were im- 
parted to him, as he declared, by spirits and angels in the in- 
visible world. There exists no valid reason for doubting his 
veracity or clearness of perception in regard to his memor- 
able relations, and we may enquire further. 



90 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Andrew Jackson Davis, now of Boston, and formerly 
known as "Poughkeepsie Seer," gave a fresh impulse to in- 
vestigation in this direction by the production of "Nature's^ 
Divine Revelations." His disclosures were made while in< 
the mesmeric trance in the presence of witnesses of different 
shades of religious belief, but generally intelligent and truth- 
ful. Dogmas of theology, problems of science, and matters- 
beyond our common knowledge were treated as by one hav- 
ing competent learning and authority. One of these, I re- 
member, was the announcement that there are two planets 
in our solar system not yet discovered. The star Neptune 
had only just come to our knowledge. This announcement 
was received in scientific and literary circles in silence or dis- 
missed in language of derision. It might be true, but the 
revelation of a mesmeric clairvoyant could not be accepted. 
Yet not many weeks ago, the statement appeared that cer- 
tain deflections in the course of other planets indicated the 
existence of two more worlds of similar nature in that far- 
off space. I do not, however, cite this with the expectation 
that such verification will be accepted in evidence. There ex- 
ists a deep-seated Sadduceism in the so-called scientific 
world, that would not admit testimony even more unequivo- 
cal. But our quest is for truth, and we must let it find its 
own avenues. 

The experimentation with Mrs. Piper under the auspices 
of the Society for Psychical Research has evidently resulted 
in establishing the fact that such avenues have actually been 
found; I place no importance upon her published disavowal. 
She was undoubtedly in the entranced state when making 
her replies to her magnetisers. We can not suppose her to 
be shamming. Her own character precludes this, and the 
members of the society having the matter in charge would 
have speedily detected any fraud if such had been attempted. 
I accept what the society has published as being true, and 
conscientiously declared. What, therefore, we have to con- 
sider is in relation to the disclosures themselves. I have no 
doubt that they rank with others of similar character ob- 
tained from other sources. 

The question before us relates, as I understand it, to the 
nature of the communications, whether they were from some 
region beyond our common life, or to be explained by some 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 9£ 

theory of telepathy. It appears to me that both agencies 
possibly existed in the case. What I have noted in former 
examples has convinced me that there is a silent influence 
exerted by spectators, which we often do not suspect. This 
occurs in everyday life. The orator thus affects his audience 
and in turn the audience often inspires him. We are affected 
by every one with whom we have to do. The mesmerised 
person whose individuality is thus rendered dormant be- 
comes more exquisitely sensitive to the aura and influence of 
those whose attention is concentrated upon him. Of course 
he is most susceptible to his magnetiser, sometimes evident- 
ly entirely so, but spectators have their share of influence. 
He will often reiterate what is in their thought, and they will 
take this for a special revelation. It is not necessary that 
they in each case are vividly conscious of such thinking, for 
our real thought is far beneath and beyond the sphere of our 
own consciousness. Only the superficial thinking is per- 
ceived by us. Hence we often operate on one another by 
our presence, by the concentrating of our attention through 
the silent energy of our will, and yet perhaps suppose that 
we are only passive. 

It must be left to others to judge whether this in any de- 
gree explains the case of Mrs. Piper. Those who are person- 
ally cognisant may feel certain that it does not to any reason- 
able degree meet the conditions, and indeed it is proposed 
only as a partial explanation. The world of mind is too 
broad to warrant the including of such phenomena in a pur- 
view so narrow and circumscribed. 

Our intelligence cognises a mode of being and a region of 
thought that are by no means comprehended within the 
sphere of material existence. It is neither logical nor philo- 
sophic to imagine that while there exists myriads of living 
beings in series between man and the monad, that beyond on 
the superior side it is blank, and devoid of life and sense. 
"We are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses/' 
declares an anonymous writer in the New Testament. "Mil- 
lions of heavenly creatures walk the earth," the poet Milton 1 
assures us, and I. am content to believe it. It is not to be 
assumed that they are not cognisant of our presence. If any 
of them are souls that have lived in the earth, they may have 
still an inclination to take some part in matters of this mun- 



"92 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

dane life. They must possess enough still of our human 
quality to be able to make their wills operative upon those 
who are still living. Bunyan describes his Pilgrim followed 
Dy a wicked being who "whisperingly suggested many griev- 
ous blasphemies to him which he verily thought had proceed- 
ed from his own mind." It is reasonable to suppose that as 
we are compassed about with living essences, that they will 
be of a character substantially like our own, and that they 
are able to insinuate or rouse into activity thoughts in us 
which we will apprehend as our own. And if all this should 
in any way be objectified we might contemplate it as a spec- 
tacle before our face. 

An individual in the mesmeric trance is dormant so far as 
the external senses are concerned. But the soul, the real 
self is as much awake as ever. It is then more susceptible 
to mental impression than in the wakeful period. As specta- 
tors by contemplating him intently may infuse their thoughts 
and emotions, so spiritual beings are capable of doing the 
same thing. Indeed, this is more likely to happen. They 
are more free to do so, and are naturally more easrer and 
ready. The bars between the world of time and the vaster 
world beyond time, are in a great degree removed for the 
while, and communication opened as when a man is in con- 
versation with a friend. Despite the fashionable skepticism 
that pervades such matters about with a dense wall of disbe- 
lief, and despite Mrs. Piper's own disavowals. I think this 
to be the true explanation of the case. 

This is evidently suggested in the well-worn sentence of 
Shakespeare, which may be quoted appropriately once more: 

"We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on." 

Visionary as it is common to term such things, they are 
actual entities in the region of mind, and our real self is the 
soul that undergoes such experiences, rather than the bodily 
fabric which it pervades and animates. If Shakespeare could 
produce the concepts which constitute the plot of the drama 
of "The Tempest," it appears to me unavoidably conclusive 
that such occurrences, in some manner and at some period of 
time must take place. What the mind conceives must be al- 
ways a reality. In the case under consideration it is evident 
that Mrs. Piper, when in the mesmeric trance was made pas- 



SPIRITISxM AND TELEPATHY. 93" 

sive and susceptible to the mental and spiritual influences 
which her moral and physical condition attracted. These 
intelligences thus had an opportunity to utter their thoughts, 
and perhaps were in a manner constrained to do so, through 
a living human intermediary. Some of them may have been 
the minds of the magnetiser and spectators, but others were 
without doubt unbodied beings that desired to avail them- 
selves of this means of communication. Of their individual- 
ity I am not so certain. Influence is reciprocal, and as a 
spirit may obsess a human being or an intermediary, it is 
reasonable to presume that a human being may obsess a 
spirit in turn. The eager fixed thought of a spectator at a 
sitting can so affect a spirit as to impel it to suppose itself 
the pesonality which the other has in mind. Swedenborg 
has described this occurrence in one of his works, *and it ac- 
counts for much of the drivel and absurdity which have been 
put forth as spiritual communications. Nevertheless to make 
such facts an argument for decrying all esoteric communion, 
and for rejecting all belief and confidence in the verity and im- 
portance of spiritual intercourse is the very reverse of candor 
and rationality. There is abundant reason for the belief that 
the wall or partition between the external world and that 
eternity which encompasses time is disappearing, or at least 
that there are individuals and agencies capable of penetrat- 
ing the vail. We are at no infinite distance from that region 
in which all things are real. 

*Note.— Swedenborg: Spiritual Diary 2860-2861.— " That spirits may 
be induced who represent another person; and the spirit as also he who 
was known to the spirit cannot know otherwise than that he was the same. 

This has been many times shown to me: that the spirits speaking with 
me did not know otherwise than that they were the men who were the 
subject of thought; and neither did other spirits know otherwise; as yes- 
terday and to-day some one known to me in life was represented by one 
who was so like him in all things which belonged to him, so far as they 
were known to me, that nothing was more like; wherefore, let those who- 
speak with spirits beware lest they are those whom they have known, and 
that they are dead. For there are genera and species of spirits of a like 
faculty; and when similar things are called up in the memory of a man 
and are thus represented to them, they think that they are the same per- 
sons. Then all the things that are called forth from the memory which 
represent those persons, both the words, the speech, the tones, the gest- 
ures and other things besides, that they are inducer! to^ think thus when 
other spirits inspire them; for then they are in the fantasy of these, or 
think that they are the same. 



SPIRITISM AND MRS. LEONORA PIPER. 



BY DR. WILLIAM LEE HOWARD, OF BALTIMORE, MD. 



As Doctor Hudson states: "Never before in the history 
of the scientific investigation of modern spiritism have the 
conditions been so favorable for the production of decisive 
results; one way or the other, as in this case." In my opin- 
ion the investigations have resulted in weakening the spirit- 
istic theory and strengthening the somatic, or telepathic. The 
various phenomena demonstrated in the Piper investigations 
— and all other alleged spiritistic phenomena — have their ori- 
gin and activity in abnormal development or states of the 
psychic centers, and are part of every human being's mun- 
dane physiologic life. 

Too many physiologic phenomena have been readily ac- 
cepted as proofs of spiritism, and as "the wish is father to 
the thought" the scientific analysis of the facts have seldom 
been carried out. The pleasing and satisfactory acceptance 
of spiritistic evidence by individuals untrained in physiologic 
psychology, is not surprising to the neurologist who is daily 
brought in contact with cases of auto-suggestion,the unstable 
neurotic with fervid desires for the occult, and with the many 
half baked and half prepared intellects which can easily ac- 
cept psychic phenomena as supernormal facts, but in whose 
untrained brains the physiologic conditions underlying psy- 
chic phenomena are laborious and difficult to comprehend. 

Telepathy is the explanation, in my opinion, of all the phe- 
nomena witnessed by the conscientious observers in the 
Piper investigations. It is not necessary here for me to go 
into the evidence we have of telepathy being a normal — in a 
psychologic -sense — attribute of sub-conscious activity. We 
have too many scientific facts to convince us of the mundane 
cause of telepathy, while we have not one single satisfactory 



Read before the Medico-Legal Society and Psychological Section, 
February 19th, 1902 




DR WM. LEE HOWARD. 
BALTIMORE, MD. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 95 

•fact to make us think for a moment of any supermundane 
explanation for the phenomenon. ''It would require but one 
demonstrated case of survival of personal consciousness after 
the death of the body, to prove the essential claim of spir- 
itism — future life." (Hudson.) No such single case has ever 
:been known. That is, no case of evidential structure strong 
enough to withstand the cold, penetrating rays of science. 

I relate the following incident as an example of the read- 
ily accepted evidence of supernormal existence. My valet, 
Bruno, is a young German who I brought from Berlin, and 
who has become, through a course of training, a remarkable 
psychic subject. He has been examined by a large number 
of eminent medical and scientific men who have been intense- 
ly interested in his remarkable susceptibility to suggestion. 
One evening in the presence of five gentlemen, two of whom 
were German, I hypnotized Bruno,and in a whisper inaudible 
.to anyone but the subject, suggested he was Bismarck. This 
-done, I sat down at the other end of the room, my mind pas- 
sive. Then issued from the mouth of this delicate young 
man a wonderful speech. It was an oration teeming with 
Latin phrases, voluminous quotations and fiery denuncia- 
tion. The tone was Bismarckian, the language scholarly,and 
the gestures vehement. The spectators were astounded ;and 
wonderment was depicted on their countenances. When it 
was over, one asked Bruno if he saw the spirit of Bismarck, 
^nd he answered: "Yes, he comes in to me, that's all I know, 

Herr ." With one exception the spectators were all 

religious men, pronounced churchmen, and trammeled by 
the training of early superstition. A lucidly written explana- 
tion sent the next day, has not convinced them of the satis- 
factory fact — satisfactory to minds trained by broad thinking 
— that all the phenomena they witnessed were just as certain- 
ly physiologic facts as are the variations of the pulse rate. 

Doctor Hudson says in his able analysis of Professor Hys- 
lop's report: "It is known, however, that relatives and friends 
are either actually or potentially en rapport at all times." I 
think this statement should be qualified; for while we know 
that many relatives and some dear friends are frequently en 
rapport, we do not know for a certainty — that is scientific 
certainty — to what extent the rapport exists, nor do we know 
.much about the potential element existing in untried cases. 



96 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Professor Hyslop evidently wishes to prove that the. condi- 
tions and results were such as to eliminate telepathy; yet he 
gives us no satisfactory reasons for such an attitude, and, as 
said above we have never had any scientific, or authentic, 
evidences at any time in the history of the world of any 
but somatic — or psychic — phenomena. 

Psychic lucidity, or the memory and experience of the sub- 
liminal self, has its limitations; just such limitations as Mrs. 
Piper's subliminal self demonstrated. Hesitancy, inability 
to give names, maladroit explanations and oftimes failure, 
these are conditions found in subjects partially or complete- 
ly autohypnotized, and due to the inability of the subcon- 
scious memory in the passive subject to completely submerge 
the conscious. 

It is scarcely conceivable that spirit power, did such exist, 
would have the limitations just mentioned. If so, I hope I 
shall never be a spirit. I prefer to lie undisturbed. 

Mrs. Piper has no self knowledge of what she, as percip- 
ient, gives to her investigators. She is a very sensitive psy- 
chic who seems ever en rapport with Prof. Hyslop; who, also, 
seems to have no self knowledge of his condition. 

The assertion made by Professor Hyslop that spirits have 
but little power to remember mundane things — that is, that 
their memory is limited, while telepathy has no limitation, is 
certainly an extraordinary statement. Until Prof. Hyslop ex- 
plains how he obtained such positive knowledge of the mem- 
ory limits of spirits, I do not feel justified in further analyz- 
ing his report. 




PROF. W. XAVIER SUDDUTH, A. M., M. D.. 
Fellow of the Chicago Academy of Medicini 



THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE VERSUS SPIRITISM AS 
AN EXPLANATION OF MANY SO CALLED 
SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA. 



BY PROF. W. XAVIER STJDDUTH, A. M., M. D.,, 
Fellow of the Chicago Academy of Medicine. 



In considering" Mrs. Piper's disavowal of spirit control dur- 
ing her many years successful experience as a medium, it be- 
hooves us to lay down some definite principles to govern us 
in this discussion. In the first place, the testimony, post par- 
tem, of a medium or an hypnotic subject, should have no 
standing in a court of scientffic inquiry for the reason that a 
person in a state of trance, or hypnosis, is not in the full pos- 
session of all his senses, consequently is not competent to 
pass judgment on the character of the conditions under 
which the revelations were made. At best his evidence would' 
be based upon hearsay, and such testimony is always ruled 
out of court. Not only this, but as students of their own ex- 
periences during the trance state they are not to be trusted, 
for the further reason, that, just in proportion as they arc 
good mediums, so are they incapacitated from analysing 
their own revelations. 

The term medium is synonymous with "mouthpiece." A 
medium is a person who becomes the instrument of expres- 
sion for the thoughts or messages of others, and just in pro- 
portion as he is honest and proficient in his chosen avocation, 
just so far does he lose his identity and individuality and' 
assume the role of an automaton and voice the ideas of 
others. 

Now, while Mrs. Piper is a trance medium and is supposed 
to receive messages only in that state, yet it is not absolute- 
ly necessary for an individual to lose consciousness in order- 
to become sensitive to his environment and thus receive mes- 



Read before the Medico-Legal Society and Psychological Section, 
February i9, 1902. 

LofC. 



98 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

sages and reveal the so called, hidden mysteries of this world. 
In support of this last statement we have many successful 
"readings" of honest, competent psychometrists. All that is 
necessary for mediumistic revelations, is a condition of disso- 
ciation of consequences which permits the subjective percep- 
tion to take cognizance of these subtle influences and raise 
them above the threshold of consciousness, thus bringing 
them into external relations where they may be "read," that 
is, perceived by us. 

It matters not how this be brought about, whether by auto- 
matic writing, by planchette, or by the voice of a control 
•speaking through the medium. 

It is impossible for Mrs. Piper or any other medium, to say 
•whether the opinions she holds at any time, are not the reflec- 
tion of some other person's ideas upon the subject, telepath- 
ically or otherwise received. 

In the present case, I have no doubt in my mind that her 
change of opinion regarding her past experiences is not the 
result of such influences. The thoughts received by her may 
have been my own, for ought I know, (sic) for notwithstand- 
ing the many years I have been studying spiritistic and hyp- 
motic phenomena, I have never yet seen anything to lead me 
rto believe other than Mrs. Piper has stated in her revocation 
-of her so-called spiritistic control 

If thought transference (telepathy) is the source of her in- 
formation as she now asserts, and as I firmly believe, she has 
proved herself to be a good medium for the reception and in- 
terpretation of thought vibrations, and as such vibrations are 
always on tap, so to speak, all that is necessary for her, or 
any other good medium to do in order to be able to receive 
and translate them into ordinary language, is to bring herself 
into a state of dissociation of consciousness. My explana- 
tion of the incoherent manner in which many of the messages 
have been received, is, that the medium was not always in 
the best physical or mental state to receive or interpret the 
thought vibrations that poured in upon her, or that she be- 
came weary from the forced attention required to keep in 
touch with a state of consciousness not normal to her. I 
know psychometrists, however, who work for hours daily, 
without any more apparent fatigue than would be manifest in 
any ordinary mental labor of the same duration. The fact 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 99 

that these incoherences in Mrs. Piper's communications came 
just before the close of the sitting, seems to bear out this 
conclusion, that they were caused by fatigue of attention. It 
is possible that Mrs. Piper's own personality may have in- 
terjected these phenomena into the message. I have seen 
instances where such was the case. The medium assumed 
certain things to be essential to success. It has been very in- 
teresting to watch the outcroppings of these individual pecu- 
liarities of different mediums. In one of my own personal ex- 
periences, where- 1 was studying a successful psychometrist, 
in the hypnotic state, I held in mind the image of my father, 
who had passed on some two years before. The subject had 
not known him personally, or in any manner. I have strong 
powers of visualization and can project thought images with 
great clearness, which I know help me in these experiments 
which I have been making for years along this line of observ- 
ation. 

In this instance the subject, a Mrs. E., very quickly caught 
the image and gave an accurate description of it. Now, she 
is not a spiritualist and strongly resents the idea of spirit 
control in her work which she generally carries on in the wak- 
ing state. She deprecates anything that savors of spiritual- 
ism in relation to her work and consistently and conscien- 
tiously avoids it, and I made this a test of the genuineness of 
her protestations in this regard. Up to the time she had giv- 
en the accurate description of my father not a word had been 
said as to his demise. The picture I held of him was one as 
I had last seen him alive and in the full enjoyment of health. 
Then I permitted my thought to naturally pass on to the final 
parting scene and the medium was visibly affected. She said 
"I do not understand this. I just saw the gentleman in per- 
fect health, now he seems to be seriously ill." Her eyes were 
closed and she was in a perfect somnambulistic state, conse- 
quently could not have been affected by my own emotional 
state through the operations of the ordinary senses, but she 
was evidently influenced. I had purposely avoided saying 
anything up to this point, allowing the image to pass on to 
the next stage, the interment, and when I had fully regained 
my composure I very quietly asked, "Has he any message 
for me?" To my surprise she became greatly excited and 
said "I want you to wake me up." She had the idea that she 



100 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

could not waken without my consent. This also came from 
autosuggestion, I never having given her such suggestion. 
I tried in vain to quiet her and finally had to arouse her from 
the somnolent state. She arose from the couch, sat down in a 
chair and was very much overcome by her emotions. For a 
time I purposely avoided saying anything to her but carefully 
studied her every motion. Finally she said, "Doctor, I am 
willing you should study' me, in fact I am anxious to know 
the source of my powers, but you must not try to make me 
the medium of spirit communications." My analysis of the 
experience is, that so long as I had a perfectly clear image in 
my mind, she could see it and give a verbal description, but 
when it came to asking" her for something that did not exist 
in my mind she failed to answer my question and in her anx- 
iety to do so became worked up into a high degree of excite- 
ment, and put up the excuse that she did not want to be made 
a medium of. I say 'put up' because in subsequent tests when 
I held thoughts "for her" of absent friends she did not rebel, 
but in many instances repeated them. 

This same medium at another time, gave a successful read- 
ing of the contents of an hyperdermic vial of sulphate of mor- 
phia, not only describing the drug, but showing in her own 
person its physiological action. The vial was wrapped in pa- 
per until it made a very large package and every physical ef- 
fort made to deceive her, but I held the drug and its action in 
my mind, studiously avoiding naming it mentally until she had 
shown the different symptoms — some of which are not known 
to the laity — and as she herself, afterward stated, not prev- 
iously known to her, namely, that morphine in minute doses 
is a stimulant. She responded to the thought held in my 
mind, no word being spoken for some minutes. She flushed 
and showed every sign of increased heart action. Then she 
placed her hand to her head and finally on her stomach, 
blanched and showed marked symptoms of nausea. She was 
evidently "proving" the drug, as the homeopathist would say, 
without knowing that she held any drug in her hand. 

Finally she read the name of the drug in my mind and ex- 
claimed "Oh, it's a drug, take it away," and very ungracious- 
ly proceeded to throw the package at me, an act wholly out 
of keeping with her ordinary ladylike demeanor but fully jus- 
tified bv the circumstances. This test was not premeditated 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. ] 01 

but was sprung on the medium in the presence of the Rev. 
Dr. Winbigler, of Philadelphia, after she had made quite a 
successful reading of a letter given her by him. 

From these and hundreds of other tests made during the 
past twenty-five years, I am a firm believer in telepathy. The 
operation of an organic brain in the production of thought 
sets up vibrations which pass out into space, going on and on 
forever. The ether fairly teems with the vibrating thoughts 
of the bygone ages and all that is necessary to become pos- 
sessed of this store of universal knowledge is to become sen- 
sitive to ether vibrations, and learn how to translate them in- 
to ordinary language. Without such ability they are as Greek 
to the illiterate. 

Upon this same premise we may interpret the phenomena 
of death apparitions. A person in extremis may send out very 
intense thought vibrations which go on and on until they find 
a recipient. This is generally some near relative, who by 
reason of consanguinity has a similar vibratory note, conse- 
quently is enabled to receive and possibly translate the mes- 
sage into language. No ground is found however, on this 
theory to help spiritualists, for disembodied spirits are not 
possessed of organic brains and consequently cannot produce 
organic vibrations recognizable on this plane. The necessity 
for translation is absolute, otherwise the messages could not 
be made available. It is impossible to understand these in- 
delible records of the past except we can translate them into 
object presentations and read them out loud, so to speak, in 
the language with which we are accustomed to think. 

It is impossible to know the abstract except it be projected 
in terms of sense perception, in other words, except it be ma- 
terialized. It is this very fact that makes it necessary for psy- 
chometrists and crystal gazers to have some object upon 
which to fix the attention. The controls, so universal with 
trance mediums, also serve the same purpose, namely, they 
objectively voice the subjective, and serve to bring it above 
the threshold of consciousness, thus making it "knowable." 

The pen in the hand of the automatic writer,and planchette, 
are also of similar import. 

In closing I wish to be understood as not disavowing belief 
in all spiritistic phenomena, or as discrediting the observa- 
tions of the British Society for Psychical Research, nor the 



102 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

later work of Profs. James and Hyslop along these lines. 
Their investigations have seemed to promise light upon an 
hitherto dark subject. . 

To my mind the subject stands just where it did before 
Mrs. Piper made her disavowal. 

When she avows her belief in telepathy, and puts that force 
forward as an explanation for the wonderful revelations she 
has made in the past, she is not explaining the character of 
the communication, or in anyway simplifying the subject, but 
the rather, making it the more complex. 

What she has done however, has been to convict herself of 
incompetency to testify in a court of scientific inquiry, not 
because her former testimony was not true, but because her 
claim and her record show that she is possessed of medium- 
istic powers and is the mouthpiece for passing thought vibra- 
tions. Therefore she is not a competent judge of the phe- 
nomena, even though she be the medium of its manifestation. 

The situation is not altered in the least by her confession 
The question is still one for the Society of Psychical Research, 
and Profs. James and Hyslop have the floor. 




MARY EIJZABETH LEASE 



TELEPATHY, SPIRITISM AND MRS. PIPER. 



BY MARY ELIZABETH LEASE. 



In discussing the question, "Are the occult manifestations 
given by Mrs. Piper before the Society for Psychical Research 
due (as recently alleged by her) to hypnotism, telepathy and 
clairvoyance rather than spiritism, it would materially limit 
and simplify the presentation of thought, were all required 
to speak to the question, "What do I know?" 

It would certainly impress upon the mind that the myster- 
ies which surround the life that now is, fully equal those of! 
any life to come. While we grope after the hidden unknown, 
the material or supposedly known is as yet an unsolved rid- 
dle. 

Physical science as interpreted by its foremost exponents, 
teaches that matter is not the final form of substantial exist- 
ence, that it is composed of something which science can- 
not reach, and that being formed from that unknown invis- 
ible something, we may logically conclude that it will return 
to it again. Professor Tait, an acknowledged and eminent 
authority, declares that we do not know, and are possibly in- 
capable of discovering what matter is, and that a true con- 
ception of it is certainly unlike anything which our reason or 
our sense can form. 

The statement made by the eminent philosopher, Kant, 
must certainly be a gratification to the Christian and Mental 
Scientists, for he urges that, "We can only know phenomena, 
while noumenon, or the thing in itself, is forever beyond our 
ken. ,, 

Faraday advances the theory that all the properties of mat- 
ter are attributes of motion, and that accurately speaking 
there is but one element in the universe, that element Force- 
Energy. Physical science supplements this theory by de- 
claring that the realm of force or energy is the realm of 
causation. 



104 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

The old Athenian philosopher, Plato, declares that there 
are two worlds, one a world of ideas or archetypal forms, the 
real world; the other the world of man's experience, the 
world which Mr. Hudson designates as the realm of objec- 
tive sense, which is a world of appearance only, and conse- 
quently a vanishing and unreal world. 

All the tendencies of scientific research point toward the 
conclusion that matter as known to chemistry and physics is 
but a modified form of universal ether. We may well ask 
"What is this universal ether that behaves toward matter as 
though matter did not exist?" And until this question is 
scientifically answered all our conclusions in regard to the 
phenomena of spiritism, hypnotism,telepathy or clairvoyance, 
■are purely speculative. 

Under the theory of advanced science it is no longer spirit 
that is vague, illusive and unreal, but matter. That which 
we have been accustomed to regard from the plane of ex- 
ternality as the real, is slipping away into modes of force, 
dissolving into activity, shading off into some great reality 
that is not material, and therefore must be spiritual. Not 
physic, but meatphysics is real, supreme, and on its triump- 
-ant banner is inscribed the word God. 

It will not solve the question under discussion to declare 
the phenomena manifested through the personalty of Mrs. 
Piper are due to hypnotism, telepathy or clairvoyance, for we 
are still confronted with the question "Are not the phenom- 
ena of hypnotism, telepathy and clairvoyance due to spirit- 
ism?" We concede with Socrates that the mind is all there 
Is of us and if the mind or enduring part of man, embodied 
in, or manifesting in the material form, can influence or dom- 
inate the mind of another, then is it not possible that the dis- 
embodied mind or that which we call the spirit can influence 
or dominate the minds of others. 

That the so-called dead, the intelligence or enduring part 
•of man yet continues to exist after the body has passed 
through the change called death, is not questioned or doubt- 
ed by the great majority of thinking people whether in or out- 
side the pale of the church. Can or do these so-called dead 
or disembodied intelligences influence or act upon the minds 
of the embodied living, That they can and do, is attested 
by thousands of good and wise men and women. To dis- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 105 

'Credit or refuse to investigate the testimony of these men 
.and women because the experiences which they relate have 
mot become a part of our own exprience is to place a stigma 
upon human intelligence, make truth a bankrupt, and leave 
ithe signature of science to be protested. The mission of 
science is to study, to investigate, to test phenomena. Warn- 
ed by the mistakes of the past we should not reject the most 
minute atom of evidence because the false is mingled with the 
true. 

Only a short time ago hypnotism was pronounced an ab- 
surdity, mesmerism denounced as a fraud, telepathy was an 
outcast in the scientific world. Yet to-day they are recog- 
nized by jurisprudence as potent factors in human affairs. 
Does it not seem probable that hypnotism, telepathy, clair- 
voyance and kindred phenomena are evidences of spiritism? 
In any conclusion there is no word in human speech that we 
should use with more caution than the word "Impossible." 

Longfellow echoes the seers and poets of all the ages 
when he says: "The spirit world lies about us, and its aven- 
ues are open to the unseen feet of phantoms that come and 
•go, and we perceive them not, save by their influences, or 
when at times a most mysterious Providence permits them to 
manifest to mortal eyes." 



POSSIBILITIES. 



BY REV. GKO H. HEPWORTH, OF NEW YORK. 



The Rev. George H. Hepworth has had all the world as- 
his audience for the sermons he preaches through the col- 
umns of the New York Herald. 

In the issue of March 2, 1902, he took up the subject in- 
volved in the discussion going on before the New York 
Medico-Legal Society, under the heading "Possibilities," and 
by the kind permission of both the New York Herald and 
the author we give it here: 

"And it doth not yet appear what we shall be " — I J^hn iii : 2. 

It is a very curious and somewhat startling fact that we have just 
begun to believe that we have souls. Heretofore we have enter- 
tained vague and fantastic notions on the subject, admitting in a 
general way that a soul is better than a body because it lasts long- 
er, but having no clear ideas as to its development or as to its fut- 
ure. This life was so frightfully real that any other possible life 
assumed the shape of a dream. But of late the soul has claimed 
the attention of science, and, although progress has been made with 
slow and hesitating steps, we have certainly advanced far beyond 
our fathers in acquiring a definite position. 

Psychology has forced its way to the front, or at least toward the 
front, and half the world are asking questions concerning to-day 
and to-morrow which the other halt are trying to answer. There is 
no reason why we should not make a great many discoveries in con- 
nection with that vital spark which at death leaves the physical 
man so much a wreck that its presence is no longer wel- 
come. We give it back with many tears and an equal num- 
ber of hopes to our mother earth. We are all looking 
with eager eyes into the Beyond, and if any one in authority 
has anything to say on the subject we listen with rapt at- 
tention. There is something almost painful in the pathos with 
which we demand new facts about a continued existence, for our af- 
fections cannot and will not be satisfied with the thought of ex- 
tinction. 

Almost every family has some legend or some memory of super- 
normal experience on the part of a dear one who was just crossing 
the threshold into the other life. In some cases the sight becomes 
phenomenally acute and the departed re-appear with outstretched 
hands to assist the newcomer in the passage to heaven. In others 
the ear is equally acute, and the overture of the angels is heard as 
a welcome to the brighter land. Death has thus been robbed of its 
terrors and made easy. These stories are floating in the air every- 
where. Can it be that they mean nothing? And if they mean some- 
thing, then, how much? 







REV. GEORGE H. HtiPWORTH, 
NEW YORK. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 107 

Science has a duty to perform in this large field. It has either 
ignored or simply looked on with the curiosity of indifference. But it 
is possible to gather verified facts enough to formulate a theory 
which may sometime solidify itself into a demonstrated faith. We 
cannot afford to "pass by on the other side," and the time is coming 
when skilful men will handle these things, some Darwin bold enough 
to follow the truth wherever it may lead, and tell us what we long 
to know. The hour is ripe, the attitude of the general mind pro- 
pitious, and we have a right to look for startling discoveries in the 
near future. 

Or again. When a man comes to me saying he has a message 
from the other world, I may be incredulous, but I cannot forget that 
the word "impossible" has become obsolete. I cannot help hoping 
that what he says is true, neither can I help, believing that it is well 
within the limits of possibility. That Christ enjoyed this privilege, 
that the Old Testament is filled with instances of the kind, that St. 
Paul records a most remarkable experience along these lines, that 
in the life of every saint are similar occurrences cannot for a mom- 
ent be doubted. Have all these been mistaken, and have we been 
deaming dreams when we put faith in these statements? Is the 
Bible to be trusted elsewhere and distrusted here? Is this universal 
longing to know about those who have gone through the church- 
yard to heaven a delusion and a snare, a bright promise of faith 
which simply "sets the children's teeth on edge?" A strange world, 
indeed, in which our thirst is never quenched, our hunger never sat- 
isfied! Why, then, the hunger and the thirst? 

These matters are slowly coming within the range of scientific 
inquiry. The days of indifference have passed. With the future 
new glories will open to our surprised eyes, new truths will be dis- 
covered, and we shall find that the two worlds are so close together 
that as our prayers go forth to the gates the loved ones come to 
answer them and render assistance. 

Before that time we ourselves may depart, but the way will be op- 
en to come back bringing the love of God, of Christ and of the risen 
ones into hearts and households. 



SPIRITISM AND MRS. PIPER. 



BY RICHARD HODGSON, LL. D., OF BOSTON, MASS. 



The secretary and treasurer of the American Branch of the 
Society for Psychical Research, was requested by the Presi- 
dent of the Medico-Legal Society to make a short contribu- 
tion to this discussion, so that his position and views might 
not be misunderstood, and that his personal knowledge of 
various subjects connected with the controversy, might be 
correctly stated and understood. His reply is as follows: — 

Boston, Mass., March 6th, 1902 
Dear Mr. Bell. — Concerning the statements attributed to Mrs. 
Piper in, and following, the various papers of October 20, 1901, it 
is quite clear that for a short time in the summer of 1901, Mrs. Pip- 
er thought, and was persuaded to allow the expression of her opin- 
ion to the effect, that her manifestations might be explicable on the 
hypothesis of telepathy from living persons. 

What she really wished to say was that she did not make any 
claim that so-called discarnate spirits controlled her. She did not 
affirm that spirits controlled her, but, on the other hand, she was 
unwilling to commit herself to the view that spirits did control her. 
She wished it clearly understood that she made no claim one way 
or the other, and that she did not really know what the true expla- 
nation of her manifestations was. 

The statement, which appeared in the New York Herald of Oct. 
20th, and several other papers, was not drawn up by Mrs. Piper 
herself. It contains only a few fragments of statements made by 
her. 

In my own view, Mrs. Piper's opinion, in any case, is of no value. 
She herself in past years has never had any opportunity of arriving 
independently at any definite conclusion by any investigation of her 
own, and she is, of course, not competent herself to deal with such 
a complicated problem. She herself has sometimes felt, owing to 
ignorance of her own work, and the reticence maintained by myself 
and other sitters, as if she would like to stop sitting altogether, and 
so put aside what to her has always seemed a mystery, which she 
herself had no hope of solving. There was never any agreement 
between Mrs. Piper and the Society for Psychical Research as such. 

Her agreement for sittings since the beginning of 1897, was with 
the trance personality spoken of as "Imperator," and she has kept 
her agreement. She gave a sitting to myself on October 21st, 1901, 
in accordance with the injunctions given to her on the previous 
April by "lmperator." On October 21st, she received further in- 
structions not to sit again for twelve weeks. She resumed her sit- 
tings on January 13th, and she has been sitting regularly ever since. 




RICHARD HODGSON, 
BOSTON, MASS. 



U,. D., 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 109 1 

Mrs. Piper made some statements to reporters connected with the 
Boston Daily Advertiser and the Boston Morning Journal. I en- 
close you the cuttings from these papers in which the statements 
made by Mrs. Piper were re-produced. 

Mrs. Piper's feeling in the summer that she would stop sitting al- 
together, represented merely a transient mood. The verbatim 
statements attributed to Mrs. Piper and myself in the Boston Morn- 
ing Journal of October 29th, are given with substantial accuracy. 

You can make any public use of this letter that you please, and 
of course you can use anything that appeared in the cuttings which 
I enclose. Yours Sincerely, 

R. HODGSON. 

The extracts to which Dr. Hodgson refers, are as follow: 
That from the Boston Morning Journal of October 29th, 
1901, is as follows: 

"MRS. PIPER AND DR. HODGSON REACH AN ARRANGEMENT." 
Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, the medium, and Richard Hodgson, LL. D„ 
Secretary of the Society for Psychical Research, have come to an 
understanding. Any differences that may have existed between 
them have been reconciled. Mrs. Piper will continue her sittings 
according to agreement, and the relations that have existed between 
her and the society will not be broken. 

Yesterday Dr. Hodgson saw Mrs. Piper and talked with her about 
the statement which appeared in the New Yor£ Herald. After- 
wards both, by appointment, were seen by a Boston journal report- 
er and their statements agree as to future relations. 

Dr. Hodgson feels that the incident is closed, and Mrs. Piper, as 
will be seen from her statement, holds the same view. She has 
been distressed by the criticism and publicity to which she has been 
subjected, and desires to let the whole matter drop from now on. 

"EVERYTHING WILL GO ON." 
(By Mrs. L. E. Piper.) 

"Everything will go on just as it has previously, so far as I am 
concerned. I will continue my agreement with the trance person- 
ality Imperator. 

"Regardless of whatever may have been said I will go on with 
the present arrangement with Dr. Hodgson and the society, as 
formerly. 

"I do not deny that I said something to the effect that I would 
never hold another sitting with Mr. Hodgson, and that I would die 
first, to a New York Herald reporter last summer, when I gave the 
original interview, but last week I did not see a representative of 
the New York Herald and did not reply to Dr. Hodgson. That is 
a misrepresentation, and, furthermore, I am not responsible for 
many of the former statements that the Herald published as com- 
ing from me." 

WILL KEEP AGREEMENT. 
(By Dr. R. Hodgson.) 

"Mrs. Piper has told me to-day that she proposes to keep her 
agreement with Imperator, and she also said that she made no 
statement last week such as appeared in the New York Herald on 
Thursday. That statement was taken from the old interview. 

"When I left her to-day Mrs. Piper said: 'Of course I shall keep- 
my agreement with Imperator.' " 

The editor of Boston Morning Journal continues: 



110 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

NOT "SPIRITISTIC." 

The next sitting, according to arrangements, will not be held for 
about three months. 

Mrs, Piper still holds and expresses her view that the manifesta- 
tions are not spiritistic. In this opinion she differs from Dr. Hodg- 
son, but agrees with Prof. James. She feels that the telepathic 
theory is more probable than the spiritistic hypothesis, and her 
opinion is derived from intelligent study of the reports of the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research in addition to other literature. 

There is no doubt of Mrs. Piper's perfect honesty in the matter. 
She is unwilling to have it appear that she believes herself capable 
of communicating with discarnate spirits, but she admits the mys- 
terious power is not easily understood or accounted for. 

The Boston Advertiser of the date of October 25th con- 
tained the following announcement to which Dr. Hodgson 
alludes in the following letter: 

MRS. PIPER'S OWN DENIAL. 
Boston Advertiser. Oct. 25, '01. 

Arlington. Oct. 24. — Mrs. Leonora Piper dictated this statement 
to a representative of this paper tonight: — 

"I did not make any such statement as that published in the New 
York Herald to the effect that spirits of the departed do not control 
me. The article says: 

"I most truthfully say that I do not believe that spirits of the 
dead have spoken through me, when I have been in the trance state 
as investigated by scientific men of Boston and Cambridge and the 
English Psychical Research Society, when I was taken to England 
to be studied. It may be that they have, but I do not affirm it." 

"I did not make that statement. 

"My opinion is today as it was 18 years ago. 

"Spirits of the departed may have controlled me and they may 
not, I confess that I do not know. 

"I have not changed. 

"I fancy a feeling of envy prompted this statement 

"I make no change in my relations." 

This is Mrs. Piper's first statement about herself to any news- 
paper for years. 

Fn the first clause the sensation which has stirred this country 
and Europe is punctured. In the last the allegation of severed re- 
lations with the Psychical Society is stripped of its fiction. 

The same journal adds: — 

Mrs. Piper, positively shrinks from publicity and shudders at no- 
toriety and the thought of eyes prying into her own private, domes- 
tic life, which is sacred to her. For this reason she is very, very 
reluctant and chary about saying anything even in her own defense. 

She is keenly sensitive to what is said. The appearance of the 
story jiublished in New York, which was reaffirmed only yesterday 
as authentic, culminated in the dictated utterance given above, 
which breaks a long and trying silence, and pulls down on the heads 
of those who have made the mis-statements the whole fabric of 
their pens. 

Mrs. Piper has been nearly prostrated. Newspaper men have 
flocked to her home during the past few days, but she felt obliged 
even under the exasperating circumstances to deny herself to all, 
until finally a statement seemed advisable. 

She says it is all she has to tay. not one single syllable more, not 
one syllable less. Envy and malice, it is said, are the key to the 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. Ill 

incident, first and last. Mrs. Piper is to-day, was yesterday and 
will be to-morrow, as she was 18 years ago. The publication of the 
New York story is perhaps due to what the Lydia Pinkham of the 
soul would term M. A. M. 

Another root which has been growing in the public mind, that 
Mrs. Piper has been giving sittings to individuals outside of the 
Psychical Research Society, is also pulled out by her statements. 
Not even a fibre remains. She says she has not given a sitting to 
any one outside of the society. 

People have asked her repeatedly, and besought her, but not a 
sitting has there been. Mrs. Piper stands by this assertion with 
great positiveness. There have been intermissions in her work 
for the society, but even in these there have been no sittings for 
others. A Rev. Mr. Free, Unitarian clergyman, is one who has been 
named as having been honored with a sitting. Investigation shows 
that he sought one, but was refused and all others have been re- 
fused. 

The Journal also says: — 

As a resident of Arlington Heights, as a member of the social and 
•church life qf the town, as a generous and delightful neighbor, as a 
wife, as a mother, as a matron in her own home, the life of Mrs. 
Piper is as near ideal as he is found here below. 

She has lived in Arlington many years, about a decade, and there 
where she is known best, where she is seen day by day, among 
those who come in direct relationship with her, she is beloved the 
most. 

Her life, her work, is in her own delightful home on Oakland ave., 
where the neighbors love to drop in, and where a most cordial wel- 
come awaits all. There is no isolation by Mrs. Piper. She mingles 
as unaffectedly and warmly with her friends and neighbors as any 
woman. The care of her own home, which she has built on a most 
pleasant spot, and the attention of two young daughters who are 
attending school, are naturally the first to occupy her mind, and 
when she is not enveloped in her work for the Psychical Research 
Society, which demands her mornings, then, as any mother in a 
home, she moves among her friends and neighbors. 

Often it has been rumored that she lived in a world of her own, 
and to this she says, yet in a kindly spirit: — 

"I have had no intention of isolating myself, and have not inten- 
tionally done so. My duties have been such that they have con- 
fined me to my home during the past year or two. Up to that time 
I always went about, was friendly disposed to my neighbors, and 
they towards me. so far as I know." 

Her neighbors know her, and speak of her as a representative 
American woman. Her neighbors say she contributes to charity, 
she attends their church, sends her children to their schools, and 
joins in their social diversions. 

Psychical subjects are not tabooed, either. She as freely dis- 
cusses them with those about her as with Prof. James or Dr. Hodg- 
son. Oftentimes a neighbor will ask a question, and to all she has 
an intersting answer. 

And concludes as follows: 

She attends the meetings of the Woman's Club, goes to church 
fairs, and is an active member of the whist club, playing with a 
keen interest. As she talks with her neighbors about herself, 
when they have an inquiry to make, she says she does not know 
what the power is that she has. It came to her while a girl. She 
Has never claimed to them, as they say, that sue is a spiritualist. 



112 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

She has frankly spoken of the power to tell of things that have oc- 
curred, but she never has claimed power to look into the future. 

And here again her neighbors confirm her own remark about sit- 
tings. Not a neighbor has ever had a sitting. True, some admit 
they have sought them, but while many might have thought them- 
selves called, not one has been chosen. 

"Have you ever had a sitting with Mrs. Piper?" I asked a prom- 
inent resident, a neighbor, before I had seen Mrs. Piper herself, and 
he replied: "Not I, and I don't believe anyone else has." 

Her neighbors say that all the mis-statements about Mrs. Piper 
have come from those who have been refused sittings. 

Mrs. Piper has been sick a god deal, as many cares there are to 
worry her, but she pursues tne even tenor of her way, quietly, hap- 
pily, serenely, which is the way of her neighbors, and the regard 
and respect is mutually deep and sincere. 

Dr. Hodgson of the Psychical Research Society visits her, as he 
has done almost daily this week as he has in the past, but outside 
of her own home her work never becomes "shop" talk. 




MRS. M. LOUISE THOMAS. 
Vice-President from New York State to the Medico-Legal 

Society ok New York, 

AND 

Vice-President Psychological Section 
Ex-President sorosis. 



TELEPATHY, HYPNOTISM, SPIRITISM ANI> MRS- 
PIPER. 



BY MRS. M. LOUISE THOMAS. 



Mr. Clark Bell, Esq., Dear Mr. President: 

I am glad that the subjects treating on soul and matter are enter- 
ing upon the realm of pure science wnere they justly belong. It 
seems to me that the subject of spiritism is closely allied to the elec- 
tric impulse; when the one becomes clear the other will be luminous. 
When Prof. Morse planned to bring together the two shores of the 
Atlantic it never occurred to him that it could be done without a vis- 
ible line of cable from shore to shore. Marconi has accomplished 
the same thing without using anything, save the vibrations in the air 
about us. In the same way the soul sees, hears and speaks to those 
who open their consciousness to its workings. I think we are on the 
very eve of wonderful developments. I do not believe in passes and. 
strokes, and staring into the eyes to obtain control over some mind 
weaker than that of the operator; that is the very lowest phase ot 
the mighty science. I do not believe in it, and I would throw guards 
around it by the law to protect weak women from designing men. 
But, when such men as Judge Daily, Mr. Marsh, Mr. White, Prof. 
Sudduth, J. Minot Savage, Rev. Mr. Hepworth and others such as 
you have named, enter into the subject, we have no need to fear that 
it will be treated in any other, save a dignified and earnest manner. 

If I live to return to my villa in Fordham, I shall hope to nave 
some discussions on the subject held in my parlors, for with all 
earnestness I can declare that as the body fades away the soul takes 
on fresh strength and power. I am; 

Sincerely your friend, 

M. LOUISA THOMAS, 



RESULTS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



BY REV, MINOT J. SAVAGE, D. D. 



"It— the Society's work— is the most important work which 
is being done in the world— by far the most important " 

- GLADSTONE. 



The Society of Psychical Research was organized in Eng- 
land in the year 1882. Its first president was Professor H. 
Sidgwick, of Cambridge. It is well known that he is one of 
the greatest ethical writers of the age. He challenged the 
common sense, the intellect and the scientific knowledge of 
England by the statement that it was a "scandal" that such 
alleged facts should go so long without any serious attempt 
at investigation. He was president of the society from 1882 
to 1884. He was followed by Professor Balfour Stewart, F. 
7R, S., who held the position from 1885 to 1887. Then from 
1888 to 1892 Sidgwick again took the presidency. In the 
year 1893, the Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M. P., F. R, S„ was 

Contributed to the Medico-Legal Society and its Psychological Section 
bytfbe author, through the courtesy of Ainslee's Magazine. 

: NOTE— By the Editor. 

Rev. Minot J. Savage had accepted the invitation of the President of the 

Itfedico -Legal Society, for the December meeting, and his name was 
printed in the programme, but the state of his health and other causes 

prevented his coming, which he explained. 

La'er, when the discussion was resumed at the February meeting, he 

ragain wrote that he would be present and he v as again announced to 
take part in the discussion. Again circumstances prevented his attend- 
ance, and he was so sure of attending that he gave no notice, and his 
seat was reserved till the end of the session. 

The Society voted that his paper be printed as if he had attended, and 
the state of his health forbidding his attempting the preparation of a 
formal paper, he wrote suggesting that the Society accept the paper he 
had prepared on the subject for Ainslee's Magazine as a favor to him, 
which would appear in the March number of that magazine, or such ex- 
tracts from it as would meet the editor's approval, with consent of that 
-periodical. 

Ainslee's Magazine, on learning of the situation, most kindly consent- 
ed that the article by Dr. Savage might appear in the Journal, and its 
compilation of the papers on this theme by all the authors, and our mem- 
bers and readers are indebted to the courtesy of that magazine for the 
paper Dr. Savage contributes to the discussion. 




REV. MINOT J. SAVAGE, D. D. 
NEW YORK. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 115 

president. He was succeeded by Professor William James, 
of Harvard, for the years 1894 and 1895. From 1896 to 
J899, the position was held by Sir William Crookes, F. R. S., 
the inventor of the famous Crookes tube, which was the 
stepping-stone to the discovery of the X-rays. During the 
year 1900, Frederick W. H. Myers held the presidency. The 
present president is Dr. Oliver Lodge, F. R. S., a prominent 
member of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science. These men are mentioned as indicating the kind 
of persons in England who have been willing to enter upon 
this work. The society in this country was organized in 
1885. After a time it was found better to make the Ameri- 
can society a branch of the English, so as to give its mem- 
bers the advantage of the work done on the other side of the 
sea. 

One of the first, and as a preliminary, one of the most im- 
portant results of the society so far has been to make th'e 
study respectable. Under the shadow of these great names 
a man can look into these things without having his sanity 
impeached. "Good society," to be sure, has as yet no place 
for it, and one's friends may regard him with a tolerant smile; 
but he can investigate as much as he pleases now, without 
being regarded as anything worse than "peculiar." 

There are many reasons why these matters should be stud- 
ied. There are thousands of people in the modern world, to 
speak within limits, who are accepting reports of such stories 
as true, and who are shaping their lives by the beliefs which 
are connected with them. It seems to me clear that the mat- 
ter involved compels us to choose one of two alternatives. 
We are here face to face with the greatest truth of the uni- 
verse, or else with the most lamentable delusion, one or the 
other; and I, for one, cannot conceive that there is any other 
problem more important to be decided upon. 

The kinds of facts which constitute the subject matter of 
the society's investigation are not at all new. 

Reports of happenings of this kind are inextricably bound 
up with the origin, the contents and the history of every re- 
ligion on the face of the earth. Indeed, it is hardly too much 
to say that they are the visible roots out of which the relig- 
ions have sprung. They are the credentials which have been 
offered to authenticate all the revelations. Every religion is 



116 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

full of them; every Bible is full of them. In making this 
statement, the Hebrew and Christian religions and Bibles are 
not excepted. Apparitions, visions, dreams, voices, spiritual 
and mental exaltations supposed to be connected with the 
communication of divine truth, transfigurations, levitations, 
annunciations, warnings — what are these but supposed facts 
woven into the very warp and woof of all the religions?- 
They are of precisely the same kind as those alleged facts 
which are asserted to be taking place to-day, and which it 
is the object of the Society for Psychical Research to investi- 
gate. These alleged facts, then, are not new. Sporadic 
cases have been reported from all over the world and through 
all time. 

The history of the world is full of reported apparitions or 
ghosts. Do such things as ghosts exist? I am perfectly 
certain that they do. This does not mean that I feel that 
I am ready to explain their origin or nature. I simply rec- 
ognize the fact. Whether they are purely subjective or 
whether they represent some objective reality — this is a ques- 
tion to be settled in each particular case. I have many in- 
stances in my notes; but they must be omitted for the pres- 
ent. 

There is one case, however, which is of a very extraordi- 
nary kind. It occurred about a couple of years ago here in 
the immediate vicinity of New York. There was a certain 
young man who had been studying abroad. He had been at 
Heidelberg University. He was of anything but an imagi- 
native temperament. Tall and stalwart in build, he had a 
reputation as an athlete. His favorite studies were mathe- 
matical, physical and electrical. He had returned home from 
abroad, and so far as anybody knew, was in perfect health. 
He was at the summer home of his mother. It was his hab- 
it, after dinner, to go out on the piazza and walk up and 
down while smoking his pipe. One evening he came quiet- 
ly in, and without talking with anybody, went up to bed.The 
next morning he went into his mother's room before she 
was up, and laid his hand on her cheek in order to awaken 
her quietly. Then he said, "Mother, I have something very 
sad to tell you. You must brace yourself and be strong to 
bear it." Of course she was startled and asked him what he 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 117 

was talking about. He said, "Mother, I mean just what I 
am saying. I am going to die, and very soon." 

When his mother, startled- and troubled, pressed him for 
an explanation, he said: "Last night, when I was walking 
up and down the piazza, smoking, a spirit appeared and 
walked up and down by my side. I have received my call, 
and am going to die." The mother, of course, was seriously 
troubled, and wondered whether anything might be the mat- 
ter with him. She therefore sent for the doctor and told him 
the story. The doctor made a careful examination, said there 
was nothing the matter, treated the whole thing as a bad 
dream or an hallucination, and told them that within a few 
days they would be laughing. at themselves for letting such a 
thing worry them. The next morning the young man did 
not seem quite as well as usual, and the doctor was sent for a 
second time. Again he said there was nothing the matter, 
and tried to laugh them out of their fears. The third morn- 
ing the young man appeared in still poorer condition, and the 
third time the physician was summoned. He now discovered 
a case of appendicitis. The young man was operated on and 
died in a couple of days. From the time of the vision until 
his death not more than five days had gone by. Some time 
after this experience the mother visited a psychic here in 
New York. She made no previous appointment, but went 
as a perfect stranger and waited her turn. The son claimed 
at once to be present, and told his mother a whole series of 
very remarkable things, which by no possibility could the 
psychic ever have known. Then, in answer to the question, 
"Who was it that you saw that night?" (the question being 
purposely so framed as not to seem to refer to any one out 
of the body), he at once replied: "It was my father." The 
father had been dead for some years, and the mother had 
been married again. 

Telekinesis is the technical term which psychical research- 
ers have agreed to use as covering cases of the movement of 
physical objects, which seem to require as explanation some 
force other than muscular, or, indeed, any kind which is 
ordinarily recognized by science. Space will not permit my 
detailing experiences of this kind. I wish however, to note 
that they exist, and must be dealt with as a part of the prob- 
lem. 



118 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

I wish now to detail as briefly as possible, and yet with 
some clearness, a considerable number of typical cases which 
are generally classed as mental phenomena. My purpose in 
this is to place the intelligent reader in such a position that 
he may be able to make up his own mind as to what theory- 
seems best fitted to account for the facts. The two theories 
which at present are rivals in the field will be presented and 
dealt with after the cases are outlined. 

I prefer to deal chiefly with such occurrences as I have 
been personally familiar with. Almost all of them find their 
parallels in the published proceedings of the Society for Psy- 
chical Research; but in detailing cases which I have per- 
sonally known there are two advantages. First, they are of 
course fresher and more vivid in my recollection; and, sec- 
ondly, they will serve the purpose of re-enforcing and con- 
firming the observations and experiences of others which 
have been already published. 

First, I had sittings with Mrs. Piper years ago, before the 
society was organized or her name was publicly known. On 
the occasion of my first visit to her, she was, I think, in a lit- 
tle house on Pinckney Street, in Boston. At this time she 
went into a trance, but talked instead of writing. She .de- 
scribed my father and my half-brother, neither of whom she 
had ever seen. She described the death of this half-brother 
which took place in Michigan long before. But details of 
this are omitted for lack of space. 

Second. Mrs. Piper had moved from the West End of 
Boston to a house in Roxbury. My daughter made an en- 
gagement for a sitting with her. She did this through a 
friends who was living in Roxbury, having this friend write 
the letter making the appointment, and having the reply 
come to her house under an assumed name, at least two 
miles away from where I was then living. My daughter 
went to meet the appointment, of course utterly unknown. 
A friend had given her three locks of hair. She placed 
them in a book, one at the front, one at the back, and one in 
the middle, so that they should not come in contact with each 
other. She knew nothing about them, not even as to 
whether they had been cut from the heads of people living 
or dead. After Mrs. Piper had gone into a trance, these 
locks of hair were placed in her hand, one after another. She 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 1 19' 

told all about them, gave the names, the name of the friend 
who had asked her to take them, told whose heads they were 
from, whether they were dead or living, and in regard to one 
of them, asked why they had cut it off at the extreme end of 
the hair where it was lifeless, instead of taking a lock near- 
er the head. My daughter, of course, did not know whether 
any of the names given or the statements made were correct 
or not. She made notes, however, and found that Mrs. Piper 
had been accurate in every particular. 

Third. I have a lady friend who was the daughter of a 
New England clergyman, and whose husband in later years 
was also a minister. When she was a girl, this mediumistic 
power, whatever it may be, would take possession of her, not 
only without her will, but sometimes against it. She never 
sat for pay, but would occasionally oblige a friend who de- 
sired to witness experiments of this sort. One day a young: 
German, apparently a "gentleman," whom she had never 
seen before, came and begged of her to give him a sitting. 
He said he had heard of her power, and had a very important 
reason for his request. She consented, and among other 
things, began, as she supposed, to jabber in the use of 
sounds which to her were without any meaning. When the 
influence had left her, she felt troubled and ashamed, and was 
going to apologize by explaining that she had seemed forced 
ot utter these sounds and was not able to control herself. 
The young German told her she need not apologize or ex- 
plain. He said she had rendered him an incalculable service. 
He assured her that she had been speaking German, that his 
father had been talking to him. Then he went on to explain 
that this father had died suddenly, leaving his business af- 
fairs entangled so that they were utterly unable to straighten 
them out. This, he said, his father had now given him 
through her, and that the matter was perfectly plain. He 
wanted to pay" her liberally for the service, but she declined. 
He afterwards sent her a valuable present as an expression 
of his gratitude. 

Fourth. I now come to refer to a class of experiences of 
the most remarkable sort. To go into this with sufficient 
detail to make the whole matter perfectly clear, would neces- 
sitate the writing of a small volume. A few years ago there 
was a famous^ preacher to the poor in the City of Boston. 



120 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

He and his wife both were particularly interested in those 
who had few other friends. They used to refer to these 
people as "my poor." In the old age of this minister he had 
a colleague. Both he and his colleague were intensely or- 
thodox in their views, and naturally had nothing whatever 
to do with occult phenomena. After the minister's death, 
his former parishioners, these poor people, were naturally 
scattered in different parts of the city. Some of them in 
course of time moved to the suburbs, and even to other towns 
further away. It is a common objection brought against 
these manifestations that they seem matters only to amuse 
the curious, and never show an interest in any serious work 
of any kind. Now come some hints as to the nature of cer- 
tain extraordinary facts. I asked the privilege of writing a 
small book detailing many of these experiences at length 
some years ago, but received a message purporting to come 
from the other side, forbidding my doing it. The reason 
given was that it would call attention to what was going on 
and interfere with the work. The work referred to was like 
this. For a series of years a loving labor of charity and 
help was carried on, involving no glory, no notoriety, no pub- 
licity, but the opposite. It cost effort and money to carry 
on this work, and nobody but two or three intimate friends 
were ever let into the secret. The widow of the colleague 
of this old clergyman was the "medium." She had never 
herself seen a medium in her life. She had had nothing 
whatever to do with ordinary spiritualism, did not believe in 
it, and, in fact, was opposed to it. She was, and is still, if 
living, not only orthodox, but intensely religious in her feel- 
ings. Such, then, was the situation. This old clergy-man 
and his wife were the claimed agents in the unseen, who 
spoke through this widow of his former colleague, and made 
her the agent in their charitable undertakings. She lived in 
a town not far from the City of Boston. She would receive 
orders to go into town to such a street and such a number, 
and would be told that there she would find such and such a 
person or persons in such or such a condition, and she was 
to render them the service that was needed. Cases like this 
occurred over and over again. She would follow these di- 
rections, knowing absolutely nothing about the case except 
that which had thus been told her, and she said that there 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 121 

was never a mistake made. She always found the person 
and the condition as they had been described to her, and she 
•did for them what their case required. In one instance she 
traveled to a city in another state under orders like these, 
knowing not even the name of the person she was to seek 
out, except that which had been told her. She found the 
case, however, as it had been reported, and rendered the call- 
ed-for assistance. Not all of these were cases of mere phys- 
ical need. Some of them were instances of rescue from 
moral peril, the description of which would read like a chap- 
ter in a sensational story. As a part of this general minis- 
try, another happening is worthy of record. The daughter 
of this old minister received explicit orders claiming to come 
from her father, and through his colleague's widow as the 
medium, to enclose twenty dollars in an envelope and send 
it to another town, directing it to an address of which she had 
never heard. She hesitated about sending the money in this 
way, and wanted to wait and get a check so as to. avoid risk 
of loss. She was peremptorily ordered, however, not to 
wait, as the matter was one of immediate and vital import- 
ance. She sent the money as thus directed, two ten-dollar 
bills. I have had the privilege of reading the letter acknowl- 
edging its receipt. It was written with difficulty, in the use 
of a lead pencil, and the grammar and spelling were poor. 
One could, however, almost hear the drip of tears as he read 
it. It told a story of abuse and desertion on the part of 
her husband. The forsaken wife had done all she could to 
keep her little family together. She had reached the end of 
her endeavor, had just pawned her last bit of decent furnit- 
ure, and with the proceeds had bought some charcoal and 
was making preparations to go out of the world and take her 
children with her when the money arrived. 

Fifth. There are cases of prophesy — I only note the fact; 
T but cannot stop for special instances. 

Sixth, /Under this head, I will .only say that, at my re- 
•quest, the invisible intelligence has sometimes gone away 
for me, found out some fact unknown to any one present, 
:then come back and told me about it. 

Seventh. I have already referred to one case where the 
invisible intelligence goes at my request to find out some- 
thing and report to me. This was in the citv. I now refer 



122 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

to another illustration of the same kind, only more remark- 
able still. In this case the invisible intelligence went at my 
desire and reported occurrences taking place at the time in 
the State of Maine. 

Eighth. I was having a sitting in my study with a friend,, 
a psychic. During this sitting I held an hour's conversa- 
tion with what was claimed to be a "dead" friend : — as natural* 
a conversation as I ever had with her living. The psychic 
did not know that such a friend had ever lived. 

I was holding sittings with this friend, acting as psychic,, 
once a week. Soon after this, at the very beginning of our 
next sitting, this same friend claimed to be present, and at 
once began to tell me of mental experiences and sufferings 
through which her sister in Maine was at that time passings 
The psychic knew nothing whatever of this sister, and I was 
entirely ignorant of the existence of the troubles referred to. 
The communicator calling her sister by name, said, "She is 
passing through the greatest sorrow of her fife. I wish I 
could make her know that I care. I wish you would write 
to her for me." When I asked her the nature of the trouble, 
there was a distinct and definite hesitancy about replying. 
The impression made on me was that I was treading on del- 
icate ground, and that the question was being considered as- 
to whether I had better be told. At last, as though no oth- 
er way out of it was seen, she told me that the difficulty was 
caused by the unfaithfulness and cruelty of her sister's hus- 
band. I had never seen this husband but once, and had no- 
way of knowing that the marriage was not perfectly happy. 
I wrote a letter of inquiry, however, asking whether any spec- 
ial trouble existed, and if the nature of it was such as to make 
it possible for me to be told what it was. I received a let- 
ter by return mail, confirming every word that had been told 
me, and begging me that the letter might be burned as soon 1 
as it was read. In this letter there was a little human touch- 
that impressed me a good deal. What claimed to be the sis- 
ter in the invisible, had said, "I wish I could make her know 
that I care." In the letter I received from Maine there was- 
the same human feeling out after sympathy which had ap- 
peared on the invisible side. She wrote: "When my sister 
was alive I had some one to whom I coujd go in my troubles. 
Now I am all alone." I confess that this attempting to 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 123" 

bridge the gulf by these corresponding outreachings for hum- 
an sympathy seems to me most natural and very impressive. 
The peculiarity of this experience lies in the fact that here 
the intelligence in Boston, which has shown itself capable of 
telling where a person is and what she is doing two hundred 
miles way, now reaches beyond the external physical facts, 
and gets at the existence of secret sorrows of the heart and 
comes and tells me of them in the most natural and simple 
way in the world. And these were precisely such things as 
this friend would have come to me with had she been living 
and able to do so. At the same time, let me repeat, they 
were things of which the psychic by no possibility could have 
known anything, or of which I should have even dreamed or 
guessed, and that they came to me with a great shock not 
only of sorrow, but of surprise. 

-Ninth. I am now to detail a little experience which seems 
to me to have about it certain features which are very unus- 
ual, and therefore worthy of special remark. Never in my 
life, until my son died two years ago, did I attempt to get 
into communication with anv special person at any sitting 
held with any medium. I have alweys taken the attitude of 
a student trying to solve the general problem involved. On 
two or three occasions, however, within the last two years, I 
have tried to see if I could get anything that appeared to be 
a message from my boy. He died two years ago last June 
at the age of thirty-one. I was having a sitting with Mrs. 
Piper. My son claimed to be present. Excluding for the 
moment all other things, I wish definitely to outline this one 
little experience- At the time of his death he was occupy- 
ing a room with a medical student and an old personal friend, 
on Joy Street, in Boston. He had moved there from a 
room he occupied on Beacon Street since I had visited him, 
so that I never had been in his present room. I knew noth- 
ing about it whatever, and could not even have guessed as 
to anything concerning it which he might say. He said: 
"Papa (and this with a great deal of earnestness) I want you 
to go at once to my room. Look in my drawer and you 
will find there a lot of loose papers. Among them are some 
which I wish you to take and destroy at once." He would 
not be satisfied until I had promised to do this. Mrs. Piper, 
remember, was in a dead trance at the time, and her hand* 



124 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

was writing. She had no personal acqaintance with my 
son, and, so far as I know, had never seen him. I submit 
that this reference to loose notes and papers which for some 
unknown reason he was anxious to have destroyed is some- 
thing which would be beyond the range of guesswork, even 
bad Mrs. Piper been conscious. Though my boy and I had 
been intimate heart-friends all our lives, this request was ut- 
terly inexplicable to me. It did not even enter into my 
mind to give a wild guess as to what he meant, or why he 
wanted this thing done. I went, however, to his room, 
searched his drawer, gathered up all the loose papers, looked 
through them, and at once saw the meaning and importance 
of what he had asked me to do. There were things there 
which he had jotted down and trusted to the privacy of his 
drawer which he would not have had made public for the 
world. 

Tenth. Years ago, a world-famous naturalist came to Bos- 
ton and delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell In- 
stitute. He had been trained in his youth as a clergyman 
of the Church of England. He told me that in his early life 
he had looked upon all these matters with contempt, but had 
been startled into making them a study by some personal ex- 
perience. The result of it was that he and other friends or- 
ganized a circle composed of sixteen people. They held 
sittings every week when they were in London, during a per- 
iod of seven years. There was no one possessing medium- 
istic powers in this circle at the time when they began the 
sittings; but as they went on, psychic powers of every de- 
scription were developed within the limits of their own mem- 
bership. Among these sixteen are the names of people 
"known all over the world, and who would be readily recog- 
nized if I should mention them. It would seem like a chap- 
ter out of the "Arabian Nights" if I should detail the things 
which this naturalist told me as having occurred at their sit- 
tings. What I have said is only an extraordinary introduc- 
tion to one little incident which I wish to detail. This nat- 
uralist himself became an automatic writer. One member 
of the circle had a brother who was an officer in the army. 
They had talked over these things, and the brother had 
promised that if he died first he would try, if possible, to 
communicate. This gentleman came into the private room 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 125 

of the naturalist one day and said, "I wish you would see if 
you can get any writing." He did not feel like it, but as a 
matter of accommodation sat down and took paper and pen. 
Pretty soon his hand began to move, made certain meaning- 
less scrawls at first, and then began to string letters togeth- 
er in the form of words. As, however, he looked on what 
he had written, it seemed to him without any meaning. He 
told me that if they were words at all, they were not words 
in any language with which he was acquainted. The friend 
asked him what he had obtained, and he remarked, careless- 
ly, "Oh, nothing. It's nonsense; at any rate, it has no 
meaning to me." Whereupon, the friend himself came and 
looked over the paper, and started with surprise. He said, 
''Perhaps it has no meaning for you, but it has all the mean- 
ing in the world for me." And then he explained that this 
brother, who at this time was dead, had made up certain 
words out of his own head. They were not words in any 
language, but they were arbitrary arrangements of letters 
which appeared like words. He had given these to his 
brother, and had said, "If I can ever come to you I will bring 
these as a test. If I do not bring them, you need not be- 
lieve that it is I." And here the naturalist, in absolute ig- 
norance of these facts, had reproduced the identical combi- 
nations of letters which the officer years before had made as 
a proposed test for his brother. 

Eleventh. There is a lady living in a small town in the 
northwestern part of the State of New York. Her husband 
died a few years ago. On one occasion she had a sitting 
with Mrs. Piper, but did not get results which were wholly 
satisfactory to her. About a year ago, on the occasion of 
some anniversary — whether of his birth or their wedding, I 
do not know — she went to the cemetery to place on his 
grave some flowers of a special kind of which he had been 
fond. Suddenly, and to her great surprise, she felt a vivid 
impression of his presence. It was so marked that she 
spoke to him as if he were there. Then she said, "If you 
really are here, you go straight to Dr. Hodgson through 
Mrs. Piper, and tell him so. Tell him what I am doing. 
Do this as a test, so that I may know." It happened that 
•at this very hour Dr. Hodgson was having a sitting at Arl- 
ington Heights with Mrs. Piper. Into the midst of the sit- 



126 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

ting, breaking into the communication that was supposedly 
being received from some other source, this personality 
came. He detailed at length and in particular the fact that 
he had just been to his wife's home, and had found her at the 
cemetery placing flowers on his grave. He told what these 
flowers were, and said, "She has begged me to come and tell 
you about it as a test, and I am here." ^Careful note was 
made of these facts, and as soon as communication could be 
made by mail, they were verified in every particular. 

Twelfth. An English girl was engaged to be married to 
a voting American who had been a student abroad. They 
had met at Heidelberg. He died suddenly after returning 
to this country. She came over here shortly afterward to 
visit his mother. While in Xew York she went to a med- 
ium. There was no appointment beforehand, and there was 
no way by which the psychic could know who she was. Tak- 
ing her turn, she sat down by the medium, who went into 
a trance and began to speak. Immediately the girl's lover 
claimed to be present. He told her a number of things 
which only they two had ever known. He recalled circum- 
stances connected with their acquaintance abroad. Xow, it 
so happened that this young lady's father was an English of- 
ficer in the war in South Africa. Among other things which 
the young man told was this: He said, "I am glad that I 
have been able to save your father's life once or twice dur- 
ing the past summer." Xow comes the strange coincidence, 
if coincidence only it be. The father writes home from 
South Africa, being entirely ignorant of all that had taken 
place here, and relates what seems to him a somewhat re- 
markable fact. He tells how he was sitting in his tent one 
day when there came upon him suddenlv an unaccountable 
impression that he was in danger. It was as though some 
one were trying to make him feel this and induce him to 
move. So strong was the feeling that he got up and went 
over to the other side of his tent. He had hardly done this 
before a shell struck the chair where he had been sitting. 
Had he remained there he would have been instantly killed. 
Of course, it is not asserted that this is anything more than 
a coincidence: but the suggestion is made that coincidences 
of this sort have been so very frequent as to make one won- 
der as to whether there is not some deeper meaning in it all. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. ]27 

It may be worth while now, roughly to classify the kinds 
x>i facts which are communicated. This will help us to see 
as to whether one theory or another seems more easily to fit 
the case. 

First. There are hundreds of facts communicated with 
which one or more of the sitters who are present are well 
acquainted beforehand. 

Second. There are things told which none of the sitters 
ever knew, but which it is possible the psychic may have 
known. 

Third. There are no end of facts communicated which the 
psychic by no possibility could ever have known, but which 
may have been known to some of the sitters. 

Fourth. There are facts related which no person present, 
sitter or psychic, ever knew. 

Fifth. There are things told which are not known by any 
of the persons present, but which presumably may have been 
known by some living person somewhere in the world. 

Sixth. There are cases of facts communicated which no 
living person in the world knew at the time or could possi- 
oly have known. 

The object of this classification is only to call attention to 
the point that the theory which is ultimately accepted must 
be one capable of including and explaining all this variety of 
facts. 

It must also be remembered that apparitions and the move- 
ments of physical objects must be accounted for. 

TWO THEORIES. 
Now, there are only two theories which at the pres- 
ent time claim the serious attention of serious people. These 
are what have come to be widely known as the telepathic 
and the spiritistic theories. So zealously is the telepathic 
theory held to and advocated by the determined opponents 
of the spiritistic that the impression is made on the public 
mind that we know a good deal more about telepathy than 
we really do. Let us see just what it is that we know. 

TELEPATHIC THEORY. 
There are sporadic cases of impressions or definite com- 
munications made between living minds at a distance. There 
are enough of these, and they are definite enough to pre- 



128 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY.. 

elude the theory of coincidence, so that they are recognized 
by all serious students as real. They are, however, as I 
have said, generally sporadic. The law in accordance with 
which they take place is not known, and they are not pro- 
ducible at will. Attempts have been made to communicate 
definitely from mind to mind, but with somewhat indifferent 
success. There have been hits enough to show that some- 
thing real was taking place, but the hits have not been so- 
numerous as the misses. This, then, is the real state of our 
knowledge in regard to telepathy. The theory is stretched 
and made almost all-inclusive, and the supposed agent at 
work is credited with almost unlimited powers and universal 
knowledge. This is done, not because there are any facts 
in existence to support such a claim, but merely because it 
seems to be the only alternative if the serious student wishes 
to escape the acceptance of the spiritistic theory. 

OBJECTIONS TO TELEPATHIC /THEORY. 
That the sub-conscious self can go at will and get facts,, 
now in one country or state, now in another: that it can stek 
out at will the friends of the particular sitter who happens 
to be present ; that it can select facts which concern both liv- 
ing and dead, and which are apart from each other by years 
in time, as well as by thousands of miles in space: that it can 
combine separate qualities so as to successfully simulate a 
personality and that the particular personality which the case 
requires: that it can at different sittings bring together just 
the facts to fit the person claimed to be present: that at a 
subsequent sitting it can remember all these multitudinous 
details, begin where it left off weeks before, and go on in 
perfect consistency with all the facts brought out before;- 
that all this is possible to the subliminal seems to pass the 
bounds of belief. 

If, now, the reader will carefully look over the numbered 
list of cases which have been presented, he will be able to 
make up his own mind as to what ones of them would seem 
to be explicable on the theory of telepathy and what ones 
would not. There are at least half of them, which, in my 
judgment, telepathy does not touch. If any one chooses to 
assume that the subliminal consciousness of somebody can 
do any conceivable thing: travel over the world and find out 
anv conceivable item of knowledge; tell of things that no- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 129 

body in the world knows; resurrect facts from a long-distant 
past, and move physical objects without physical contact — if, 
I say, any one chooses to assume a theory like this, why, 
there is nobody who can prevent his doing- it. But if he 
claims that it is scientific or that there are any known facts 
or adequate reasons for such an assumption, then, I submit 
that he will be likely to place under suspicion his reputation 
as a sane, fair-minded and careful investigator. 

. SPIRITISTIC THEORY. 

Let us now turn for a little and consider the spiritistic 
theory. It is an axiom of science that one must keep to 
the nearest and seemingly most natural theory in attempting 
to explain facts which are not yet scientifically accounted for. 
We must not explain the unknown by something else which 
is still more unknown. But it seems to me that a reason- 
able claim may be set up in favor of the statement that the 
spiritistic theory is nearer to the natural and normal than 
such an expansion of the telepathic as would seem necessary 
to account for the facts with which we are dealing. 

If we assume the existence of the people who used to in- 
habit this earth, their agency might easily explain and ac- 
count for all the wide varieties and classes of experiences 
which we have been considering. This theory would natur- 
ally account for all the mistakes and failures which have 
been recorded. We know that people in this world make 
mistakes and forget, and there is no reason to suppose that 
the moment a man dies he becomes either a perfect angel or 
a perfect devil. There is nothing in the fact of death with 
which we are acquainted to suddenly change one's nature or 
personal characteristics. What the difficulties of commun- 
ication are on the spirit side — if there be any spirit side and 
any communications — we do not know. That difficulties 
should exist, it is not unreasonable to believe. It is no part 
of my present purpose to go into a discussion of what these 
may he. I only wish, in a general way, to assert that I have 
never had an experience or known of a well-authenticated 
account of one which might not be rationally explained on 
the supposition that there are invisible beings about us, who 
are interested in our affairs, and who, under certain condi- 
tions, can come into contact with our lives. 



130 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

It may be important, however, to note briefly a few objec- 
tions which, so far as my study of these matters is concern- 
ed, have been frequently brought up. 

OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITISTIC THEORY. 

First. It is commonly said that the communications which 
;are claimed to be received from the other life are trivial. 
They seem to me to be very much what we ought to expect, 
on the supposition that death does not radically or suddenly 
change people, whether as to character or intelligence. Peo- 
ple have frequently asked me what sort of messages I have 
received; and I have sometimes said that they were about on 
the level of my daily mail. I get wise letters and common- 
place ones and foolish ones; but those which really come 
from noble and wise people are not always over-dignified, 
nor do they deal with the great problems of the universe. 
They are frequently taken up with the simplest, commonest, 
most personal matters; but they are perfectly natural and 
fitting in the circumstances which called them forth. If peo- 
ple after death are just "folks." substantially the same kind 
of people they were here, introduced into new conditions, 
and with infinite possibilities of growth and progress ahead 
of them, there is no reason why we should not get from them 
at first simple personal messages, if we can get any. 

Avid it is to be remembered that if their object should hap- 
pen to be to convince the friends left behind that they are 
still alive and that they maintain their personal identity, this 
could l>e more readily done by reference to old and common 
and simple things than in any other way. 

Second. It is said that we get no satisfactory descriptions 
of another world or another life. Here two points may well 
be made. 

In the first place, if they should enter into elaborate and 
magniloquent descriptions of another world, we should feel 
at once that the statements were open to suspicion. At any 
rate, there would be no way of our testing the matter and 
rinding as to whether what they had told us was true or not; 
and the one thfng of importance, at the outset, at any rate, 
is, if such a thing is possible, to establish the fact of contin- 
ued existence and of personal identity. 

It may well be true (and this is what the intelligences com- 
municating have told me over and over again) that it is im- 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 131 

possible for them to give us comprehensible descriptions of 
their present state of being. A very little thought will show 
us that all our knowledge is limited by human experience. 
If, then, the conditions of that life transcend human exper- 
ience — and most certainly we should expect them to do so — 
then by so much as they transcend what we have so far ex- 
experienced here by so much they must remain unknown to 
us until we get there. It may be possible and practicable 
to establish the fact of continued existence, and yet it may re- 
main impossible for us to get a clear and definite idea as to 
the nature of that other life. This seems to me precisely 
what in the nature of things we should expect. 

Third. If by important communications from the other 
life it is meant that no high and fine ethical and spiritual 
teaching is received then the statement simply is not true. 
If any one will take the trouble to make himself acquainted 
with the best literature in this direction he will find that 
there is no nobler religion, no grander morals, no sweeter 
humanities, no more hopeful outlook for the world to be 
found anywhere on earth than is to be found here. 

Fourth. It is sometimes said that the spirits have done 
no good. The question is asked as to why they do not help 
somebody; why they do not solve our perplexing mysteries, 
unravel judicial tangles, give evidence in courts of justice or 
engage in works of philanthropy. The answer is, that so 
far as these law points are concerned, though I have seen 
them suggested more than once in the newspapers, they are 
absurd on the face of them. Is there any judge in Christen- 
dom who would accept testimony from this source as a part 
of any judicial trial? There are on record no end of cases 
where mysteries have been solved and family tangles unrav- 
eled. There are a good many other cases where attempts 
hav been made in this direction, but where the persons con- 
cerned have refused to have anything to do with them. 
There are on record a large number of cases (and with many 
of them I am familiar) where great services have been ren- 
dered, sometimes even to the saving of life. As to good be- 
ing done, among the cases which I have offered in this art- 
icle, are those of practical philanthropy, wide-spread and 
long-continued. 



132 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Fifth. Another objection offered frequently as against the 
spiritistic theory is that so many sittings are failures. Here 
let it be remembered that a great many who claim to be med- 
iums are outright and intentional frauds. There are others 
among them who are undoubtedly honest, but self-deluded. 
Certain strange things happen, and they straightway fly off 
to another world to find an explanation for them, when it 
might easily be discovered nearer home. The failures that 
occur in the presence of those who possess genuine psychic 
power, seem to me to be very easily explained. If these 
communications do come from real people in an invisible 
world, then of course the psychic has no more control over 
them than does a telegraphic operator over a message that 
may be received for transmission at the office. If there is 
no one who wishes to communicate, or if the one who is de- 
sired is not present, then of course the sitting, from the 
point of view of this world, would be a failure: but the 
psychic would not be to blame. Indeed, on this theory the 
frequent failures of the psychics are a point in their favor. 
If they were expert tricksters merely, there would ordinarily 
be no need of failure; and on the theory of telepathy it would 
seem that they ought not so frequently to occur. In other 
words, it seems to me that this fact is a point against the tel- 
epathic theory and in favor of the other. 

CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion, then, let us take note of a few facts. All 
normally constituted people wish to continue to live beyond 
the incident of death. It was this great faith which more 
than anything else or all other things combined gave the 
young Christianity its power of conquest over the Roman 
world. But the happenings which made the early Christians 
feel sure took place a good many years ago. The witness 
for them are now not accessible. YVe have not the first- 
hand testimony oi a single eye-witness to any of them. The 
modern spirit of inquiry has raised the spirit of doubt 
in thousands of minds. The world would like, and the 
world needs, a re-enforcement oi its trust in this direction, 
if it may be legitimately obtained. The great representa- 
tives of the Christian faith are constantly lamenting that our 
modern civilization is in danger of being submerged beneath 
the floods oi dark materialism. In our great cities the pos- 



'spiritism and telepathy. ' 133 

session of wealth appears to be the great object of the ma- 
jority of human beings. The churches lament that the meth- 
ods by which a man becomes wealthy are easily forgotten, 
and that the simple fact of wealth assures a man high posi- 
tion in society, and a preponderating influence even in the 
church itself. On the other hand, the great mass of the 
world's laborers are restless, and the foundations of our so- 
cial and industrial order seem to be threatened by the up- 
heaval of this wide-spread discontent. -The Socialists in 
Europe are openly saying, "It used to be the church and the 
nobility; now it is the church and the bourgeois. They have 
been telling us from time immemorial that we ought to be 
contented in the position in which Providence has placed us, 
and look for our reward in another world. We no longer 
believe in any other world, and we propose to have our share 
of the good things in this. If we cannot get them by peace- 
ful means, we propose to get them anyhow." And, after 
all, can any serious thinker very much blame them? If this 
world really is only a cosmic dog-kennel, whose roof is the 
over-arching blue; and if, when we get through here, that is 
the end of us, why should one fortunate animal sit beside a 
huge pile of very attractive bones a thousand times more 
than he himself can devour, and, like the dog in the manger, 
spend his life in keeping them from being devoured by any- 
body else? If the time ever comes when the belief in an- 
other life has entirely faded out, then our present slowly- 
progressive order of affairs will experience such earthquakes 
as the past has never known. I believe that a real working 
conviction that man is a soul and has a body, and that Brown- 
ing's saying is true that the only matter of importance is 
"the culture of a soul," is more vital to the welfare of the 
world than all our development of wealth, all our inventions, 
all our discoveries, all our enormous advance of knowledge 
in any other direction. Buckle, the author of "the History 
of Civilization," says, "If immortality be not true it matters 
little whether anything else is true or not." This conviction 
would put meaning into the life of the rich man and make 
him feel that the real thing to live for is the development of 
the character of men and helping them to find and live out 
their true selves. On the other hand, it would be an un- 
speakable boon to the poor. It would not make them con- 



134 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

tented to go without the means of decent living, of culture 
and of self-development; but it would help them to know that 
the real man was something more than the means of living. 
It would make them know that the best things of the world 
are no monopoly of the rich or favored class. It would 
make them know that he who is true to himself and to his 
high ideals is living the only succesful life. It would make 
them know that this world is only a primary school. It 
would help them to remember that the important thing is 
not a cushioned seat in the school-house, nor velvet-covered 
text-books, nor rich stuffs for clothing. They would under- 
stand that the only important thing is to get one's lessons 
well and be ready to graduate. It seems to me, tben, that 
1 say well that a new, a great, a working conviction in this 
direction, as revealing to man his essential self, is the most 
important object of knowledge for the modern world. 

There is no fresh evidence likely to be discovered along 
any other lines than those of psychical research. As said at 
the outset of this article, these statements of fact which are 
being investigated now are of precisely the same kind and 
general character as those on which the great religions of 
of the world have been based in the past. The advantage is 
with the modern statements, because the happenings can 
now be investigated, and the witnesses to them can be cross- 
questioned. But while the world would like a re-enforce- 
ment of its faith in the hereafter, all sane and honest men de- 
sire above all things else that the simple truth should be 
known. All honest inquiry will exert itself to the utmost to 
avoid any bias likely to lead it astray. As the result of the 
careful investigations of serious-minded inquirers, a large 
body of facts has at last been satisfactorily established. 
These things have not been done in a corner, and they can 
no longer be simply sneered at and set aside. Statements 
of facts which are acknowledged by all competent students 
of these matters have been presented in this article. Enough 
of them have been set forth to give the intelligent reader 
grounds for judgment as to their importance. Only two 
theories have been seriously advanced to account for them. 
One is telepathy, or mind-reading, and the other is that they 
are the work of invisible intelligences. I confess that ' I 
strongly incline to accept the latter theory. It seems to 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 13-5 

me more simple, more natural, nearer to what we really 
know, and better fitted to explain all the facts. I am com- 
pelled, therefore, to accept it as a provisional hypothesis. If 
somebody can explain my facts in some other way I should 
be bound to consider what he might have to offer; for no 
man can afford to close his mind to new truth. He must be 
ever ready to reconstruct his theories and make them accord 
with any newly discovered facts. 

Here, then, I rest for the present. The reader must, if he 
be serious-minded, not put these things one side, but consid- 
er them carefully. Then, as to what they mean, "let every 
man be full persuaded in his own mind." 



SPIRITISM AND MRS. LEONORA E. PIPER. 



BY PROF. J. H. HYSLOP. 



I stated to Prof. J. H. Hyslop the situation our discussion 
occupied before the Medico-Legal Society and called his at- 
tention to the article in the New York Herald containing an 
alleged report of an interview "recently published.* as it ap- 
peared in the Herald, and in the same issue one with Rev. 
Dr. J. Minot Savage, and asked his permission to publish it 
as authorized by him as a part of the pending discussion. 

He said he would correct the Herald's article, and send it 

to me as he corrected it for that purpose. The following is 

his letter containing the article in the Herald as corrected by 

him : — 

Saranac Lake, N. Y., March 9th, 1902. 
Mr. Clark Bell, 

Dear Sir. — The interview in the Herald to which you call my at- 
tention is not accurate or complete. The first part of it is very in- 
accurate and some of it entirely false. The part of it which I en- 
close is more nearly what I said, though quite fragmentary, and in 
some features of it incomplete. I cannot at this date repeat it, and 
content myself with the statement that what I enclose of it may be 
good enough to represent my sentiments. What I have omitted in 
the rest of the interview may be considered as either wholly false or 
misleading. The incident about the oil lands in West Virginia is 
very incomplete, and does not show why I regarded it as an inter- 
esting case of chance. I mean some day to show this with 
a collection of like cases. The quotation of this interview by the 
New York Sun in the issue of March 3rd, is misleading. It quotes 
an incident as if I intended it to be spiritistic, while the Herald ac- 
count does not indicate that I did so, and when I quoted it to the re- 
porter I indicated it as a coincidence. Our poor newspaper editors 
are, as usual, as bemuddled on these matters as if they had been 
taking too much champagne. 

"We pay no attention to what Mrs. Fiper thinks of psychical phe- 
nomena or even regarding her own powers. We would be fools if 
we did so. Our task is simply to investigate the origin of the mes- 
sages she transmits while she is an unconscious agent. 

The following is from the Herald: 

"I know of an instance of a man who called on a friend. While 
seated alone in a room he saw an apparition, the distinctive features 
of which was a standing collar on which two turned down points 
were visible, with a stringlike tie about it. 

"When the friend entered the room the man asked him what he 
had been thinking about. He said he had been wondering whether 
he would wear a standing pr a turn-down collar. 




[Through the Courtesy of the N. Y Herald. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 



137 



SUBJECT IS COMPLICATED. 

"Well, what was that? You may call it mental telepathy or what 
you will. We are trying to learn how such matters originate. The 
subject, however, is more complicated than any other scientific one. 
The general public has no idea of the complications. 

"Still, we have made some advances since the Society for Psychic- 
al Research was founded, in England, in 1882. We have gone so far 
as to be able to classify the subjects for investigation. We may 
Dever learn anything from our study of the subject, or it may be 
that one hundred or one thousand years may pass before any import- 
ant discoveries are made. Still, it is, as Dr. Savage says, the only 
way, through the field of science, in which we may learn anything 
about a future life. 

"We know at least that we ought to investigate the phenomena in 
order to determine whether such things are really spiritual manifes- 
tations or merely hallucinations. If we do that, and learn the origin 
of the mysterious happenings from the days of the Witch of Endor 
to our time, we will have accomplished something. 

SHOULD UNDERSTAND MUCH. 

"Nobody should engage in this work of psychic research who is 
not familiar with all forms of hallucination, insanity, secondary per- 
sonality and all the methods of charlatanism. 

"It is undoubtedly true that frauds and charlatans seek to impose 
on persons who believe in spiritual manifestations, but the exper- 
ienced investigator can easily detect their tricks. Nor should the 
element of chance be overlooked in occurrences of this kind. 

"Chance plays many curious tricks. I know of the case of a man 
who returned home hungry, but who fonud that his dinner was not 
ready. While waiting he picked up a book. While leaning against 
an open window the book fell from his hand. He caught it as it fell 
against the window sill. The edge of a page was turned up by 
striking the sill, and on looking at the page he saw a passage refer- 
ring to a person who was waiting for a meal while hungry. That 
was mere chance. 

"I once visited a so-called psychic, accompanied by two friends. 
The psychic told me that I had recently been interested in oil fields 
in West Virginia which had been involved in litigation, during which 
two men had perjured themselves. 

"Now, those statements were true, but his words were merely a 
random shot. Nevertheless, it is the duty of the investigator and 
teacher never to let his pupils get ahead of him. He must inform 
himself on all matters whose origin is involved in doubt." 

Very truly, 

J. H. HYSLOP. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 



BY C. VAN D. CHENOWETH, OF WORCESTER, MASS. 



Among the most gifted members of the Psychological 
section is Mrs C. Van D. Chenoweth, of Worcester, Mass., 
one of the vice chairmen of the section, who is a thoughtful 
student of all psychological questions, to whom I wrote to 
take part in this discussion and who wrote me that circum- 
stances and accident had prevented her from making any 
study of Mrs. Piper's phenomenal work, and who preferred 
on that account not to participate, but on my asking her for 
a few lines en certain aspects of the subject sent me the fol- 
lowing: 
Clark Bell, Esq. Worcester, Mass. 

Dear Mr. Bell. — Any reader familiar with the published proceed- 
ings of the Society for Psychical Research in their relation to Mrs. 
Piper, must be deeply interested in the valuable papers upon the 
same subject contained in the Medico-Legal Journal for December,. 
1901. 

With regard to telepathy, it is so much easier to believe than to 
disbelieve, that the great thought-producing power of man may 
have latent means of transmission not yet discovered, that I hold 
myself prepared for most interesting development in this direction. 

I understand that telepathy recognizes the genuine interchange 
of thought, not necessarily confined to the humble symbols by 
means of which we are accustomed to express ourselves. 

That thought, now so imperfectly transmitted through the med- 
ium of language, may be communicated in all its primal vigor and" 
splendor by one intelligence to another, perfectly in accord, is 
rather an overpowering suggestion; but if I read my Wordsworth 
aright, that most mystical and emotional as well as most practical 
of English poets, this is precisely the view he indicates. 

The wonderful mechanical devices of the day greatly foster the 
idea of poorly directed, as well as sadly wasted, mental energy; and 
I dare say that the time will come when we shall so clearly com- 
prehend the carrying power of these good machines which we pos- 
sess within us, that telepathy will seem less strange than wireless 
telegraphy. 

If ever we get at facts touching the life beyond. I think we shall 
find telepathy between the living to have been the first step. 

But life everlasting is such an inconceivably great thing that it 
seems to me the few years spent upon this earth might very well be- 
the merest phase of being which could readily drop away from the 




C. VAN D CIIENOVVETH 

WORCESTER. MASS. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 139' 

wrapt consciousness of a soul strenuously bent upon higher devel- 
opment. An idea which would not preclude of future meeting 
when we too have attained. 

As you know, I have "never felt the slightest desire for any one 
to mediate between my beloved dead and me, and doubt, moreover, 
the ability of any one to do so. 

The thought is distasteful. 

I had the honor and privilege to be one of the somewhat early 
members of the Society for Psychical Research, and none values- 
more highly the disinterested labor of this learned body. 

The great names upon that roll command the world's respect and, 
gratitude. I remain, my dear Mr. Bell, 

Most sincerely yours, 

C. VAN D. CHENOWETH. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



In closing this discussion I do not see how it would be at 
all justifiable in me to omit the statement made by Mrs. Piper 
as published in the New York Herald of October 20th, 1901, 
on which the controversy was initiated and on which it must 
of necessity largely hinge. The following is the statement 
as published by the Herald, who gives its permission to al- 
low it to be published in this discussion, although copy- 
righted by the Herald, to whom we are also indebted for the 
portraits of Mrs. Piper, Prof. Hyslop and the contribution of 
the Rev. Geo. H. Hepworth. 

The Medico-Legal Society and its Psychological Section 
are further indebted to the New York Herald for notices of 
some of the articles which have been contributed to this dis- 
cussion by several of the authors, and the Medico-Legal 
Journal and its editor feel most grateful for the kind courtesy 
of the Herald in this regard. 

The title of the article in the New York Herald was 

MRS. PIPER'S PLAIN STATEMENT, 

BY LEONORA E. PIPER. 

The time having presented itself when it seems possible for 
me to be liberated from the Society for Psychical Research, I 
desire to state a few facts. 

I will begin by saying that publicity has always been dis- 
tasteful to me. My home duties have' been and are the chief 
source of my greatest pleasure. But as my name has been 
before the public for fourteen years, while my case has been 
studied, and as the subject of psychic phenomena has, espe- 
cially of late, aroused public attention, I believe it is right for 
me, in resigning from the service of the Psychical Research 
Society, to speak frankly to the public in my own individual- 
ity, in response to the request of the New York Herald. 

Note by the Editor : 

We have followed the Herald typographically, and have put in small 
capitals some sentences as they appeared in the New York Herald. 

We have omitted some explanatory head notes which form no part 
of her statement. 




itu ^ JRS - LEONORA E PTPPT? 

I Through t „e Courtesy of the N. Y. Hera.d , 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 141 

In the service of the Society I have acted simply as an au- 
tomaton, going into what is called a trance condition to be 
studied for purposes of scientific investigation, and also for 
the comfort and help of many suffering souls who have ac- 
cepted the spiritistic explanation of the words which I un- 
consciously spoke while in this dreamy state. 

It is undeniably true that many bereaved people have been 
at least temporarily comforted in sorrow. This is in itself 
a compensation for long devotion to this work. Apart from 
this, I do not feel that the world at large has derived a suffi- 
cient benefit from the many years' investigation of my case 
to warrant my continuing in it. Besides, personal circum- 
stances are such that it would be impossible for me to do so. 

After having given so many years of my life to this work. 
I now desire to become a free agent, and devote myself and 
my time to other and more congenial pursuits. 

The world to-day knows that among scientific men the 
opinions on psychic phenomena are many and varied. I 
have always maintained that these phenomena could be ex- 
plained in other ways than by the intervention of disembodied 
spirit forces. 

The theory of telepathy strongly appeals to me as the most 
plausible and genuinely scientific solution of the problem. 
To strengthen this opinion are many authentic experiences 
which have all been satisfactorily explained by means of the 
telepathic hypothesis. 

I am inclined to accept the telepathic explanation of all 
of the so-called psychic phenomena, but beyond this I remain 
a student with the rest of the world. 

The lamented Phillips Brooks once said, after a sitting 
with me, when I asked him for his candid opinion on the 
subject: — 

"It may be the back door to heaven, but I want to go in 
by the front door." 

I also prefer to go in by the front door if I am fortunate 
enough to enter. 

I must truthfuflly say that I do not believe that spirits of 
the dead have spoken through me when I have been in the 
trance state, as investigated by scientific men of Boston and 
Cambridge and those of the English Psychical Research 
Society, when I was taken to England to be studied. It may 
be that they have, but I do not affirm it. 



142 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

In leaving the service of the Psychical Research Society I 
wish to state as clearly and definitely as possible my true 
position in regard to my relations with the society and my 
own views on the subject, which has aroused so much pub- 
lic attention during the last few years. 

Only by the merest chance did I discover that I possessed 
a power wholly unexplainable to myself and mystifying to 
my family and friends. It was on account of my desire to 
understand the phenomenon and prove its nature that I gave 
myself up to scientific investigation and willingly placed my- 
self in the hands of honored scientific men, who expressed 
the wish for me to do so, with the full understanding on 
both sides that I should submit to any form of test they 
might see fit to apply. In doing this, however, the thought 
of making it a remunerative occupation never once occurred 
to me, although since then I have as a matter of fact done so. 

I must say that after having been associated with the so- 
ciety for about fourteen years I have no more definite knowl- 
edge concerning the subject than when I began. 

During the experience of these fourteen years innumera- 
ble questions have been asked regarding my belief, some of 
which I will answer here and now: — 

"Are you a spiritualist?" 

No. I have never considered myself one. 

"Have you never had any convincing proof of the possi- 
bility of spirit return?" 

I cannot truthfully say that I have. 

"Were you ever thrown in company with mediums or spir- 
itualists before you took up this work?" 

I never knew anything, about mediums or spiritualism. In 
fact, the subject never had any attractions for me. 

"Then why have you remained with the society so long?" 

Because of my desire to ascertain if possible whether I 
were possessed or obsessed. 

"What position do you consider that you have filled with 
the society?" 

Simply that of an automaton. 

"You say you are not a believer in spiritualism. What, 
then, is your opinion in regard to the utterances made by 
yourself while in a state of trance;" 



•SPIRITISM AND, TELEPATHY. 143 

I have often thought that if I could see myself as others 
•see me, -and 'hear my own utterances, I should be better able 
to form an 'Opinion. 

Many wise and good people have had sittings with me un- 
der the auspices of the Psychical Research Society, and some 
of them I have asked for an explanation when I came out of 
the condition. But I have never heard any explanation 
given, which seems to me conclusive. 

For my own part, I cannot see how it can be scientifically 
proved that we can hold communication with the so-called 
•spirit world. 

As St. Paul says, spiritual things can only be spiritually 
discerned, much less handled. 

On the other hand, I confidently feel that there is a grand, 
although mysterious, reality in the phenomenon which has 
arrested the attention of so many profound and brilliant in- 
tellects, and to which they have given so much time and 
thought. However this may be, I am glad that it has been 
of any comfort to people in sorrow. 

But I believe that truth is a higher and deeper comfort 
than any such anodyne. 

There have been many curious incidents connected with 
my sittings for the Psychical Research Society. They first 
"heard of me in the simplest fashion. My home is in Arling- 
ton Heights, in Avhat was once West Cambridge, not far 
from Harvard University. I was then living in Boston. My 
maid of all work told a friend who was a servant in the 
household of Professor William James, of Harvard, that I 
went into "queer sleeps," in which I said "many strange 
things." Professor James recognized that I was what is 
called a psychic, and took steps to make my acquaintance. 

He at once expressed a wish for me to connect myself with 
the Psychical Research Society, and that is the way my work 
began. 

At first w : hen I sat in my chair and leaned my head back 
and went into the trance state the action was attended with 
something of a struggle. I always felt as if I were undergo- 
ing an anaesthetic, but of late years I have slipped easily into 
the condition, leaning the head forward. On coming out of 
it I felt stupid and rather dazed. At first I said disconnect- 
ed things. It was all a gibberish, nothing but gibberish. 



144 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Then I began to speak some broken French phrases. I 
had studied French two years, but I did not speak it well. 

After a while my automatic utterances announced the per- 
sonality of one Dr. Phinuit, said to be a physician of France 
who died a long time ago. This so-called "control" returned 
for several years, and was the one consulted by many people 
and first studied by the Pyschical Research Society. 

All at once this went. It was gone like the snapping of the 
fingers. Then for a time a literary man who had died — the 
one called "Pelham" in the reports of the Society for Psychi- 
cal Research — was impersonated. Friends of his felt assur- 
ed that he talked to them by using my voice, or by automatic 
writing, while I was in the trance state, and to many of them 
these experiences seemed a sacred revelation. 

A Boston lady who had many sittings with me used to get 
answers not from Phinuit, but from a supposed spirit friend, 
who is called T. in the reports of the Society for Psychical 
Research. In her report for the society she said: — 

"T. was a Western man, and the localism of using 'like' as 
a conjunction clung to him, despite my frequent correction, 
all his life. At my sitting on December 16, 1886, he remark- 
ed: — Tf you could see it like I do.' Forgetful for the in- 
stant of changed conditions, I promptly repeated 'As I do/ 
'Ah/ came tht response, 'that sounds natural. That sounds 
like old times.' " 

Professor Peirce had a sitting with me some years ago, 
and he said that he received no testimony or impression to 
strengthen the theory of a communication with the departed. 
He never for one instant felt himself to be speaking with any 
one but me. He said that if he had seen or heard anything 
else he would gladly have borne testimony to it; because "a 
real communication with the glorious dead would surely be 
the greatest conceivable satisfaction to one who could not be 
many years separated from the state in which they abide." 

After Professor Shaler saw me he wrote to the Society 
for Psychical Research that he was "curiously and yet abso- 
lutely uninterested." He also said "close observation of the 
medium made the impression on me that she is honest." 

It was at a residence in Boston that I wrote automatically 
about a certain famous man called in the report Mr. Marte. 
I wrote under the. so-called control of Pelham, saying, after 
a reference to this Mr. Marte: — 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 145* 

"That he, with his keen brain and marvellous perception, 
will be interested, I know. He was a very dear friend of X. 
I was exceedingly fond of him. Comical weather interests 
both he and I — me — him — I know it all. Don't you see I 
correct these? Well, T am not less intelligent now. But 
there are many difficulties. I am far clearer on all points 
than I was shut up in the prisoned body (prisoned, prisoning^ 
imprisoned you Ought to say). No, I don't mean to get it 
that way. 'See here, H., don't view me with a critic's eye,, 
but pass my imperfections by.' Of course I know all that as- 
well as anybody on your sphere (of course). Well, I think 
so. I tell you, old fellow, it don't do to pick all these 
little errors too much when they amount to nothing in one 
way. You have light enough, I know, to understand my ex- 
planations of being shut up in this body, dreaming, as it were 
and trying to help on science." 

I do not see how anybody can look on all that as testimony 
from a person in another world. I cannot see but that it must 
have been an unconscious expression of my subliminal self 
writing "such stuff as dreams are made of." 

When I read over the reports of the Society for Psychical 
Research it all seems to me that there is no evidence of suf- 
ficient scientific value to warrant acceptance of the spiritistic 
explanation. 

Andrew Lang contributed to the proceedings of the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research for February, 1900, a criticism 
of the spiritist theory. He said that if students reject the 
idea that I am an impostor or in collusion with "Mrs. 
Howard," "we must try to produce some other hypothesis." 
Mr. Lang says he is inclined to explain the remarkable things 
that I say intrance, as well as the confused and muddled 
ones, by music reading or "telepathy a trois." He says he 
believes "there is something here into which it may not be a 
waste of time to inquire." 

A physician reported for the Society for Psychical Re- 
search: — "At my first sitting with Mrs. Piper, Phinuit said, 
'Get the medium to cut off a lock of your hair for me to ex- 
amine and then prescribe some medicine for you.' This was 
c'k jie' and the medicine sent to me and I used it for a time. 
I took a small vial of it in my pocket before visiting Mrs. 
Piper again, as I wished Phinuit to tell me what it was. I 
look it from my pocket during the trance and handed it to- 



146 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Ik r, when she removed the cork and wet her ringer, either 
from the cork or vial, and placed it to her forehead. Phinuit 
'remarked that it was all right, corectly prepared. 

"It contained among other things uva ursi and wild car- 
rot. I now remember asking the question: — 'Why was it 
necessary for yon to have a lock of my hair to examine be- 
fore prescribing for me when you had me right before you?' 
His answer was to the effect that the medicine might be ex- 
amined by him after its preparation to see that it was all 
right. He then instanced a case he had prescribed for, 
where a wrong salt was used by the p,»othecary to the in- 
jury of the lady having the seance. I made no further 
experiment as to the seat of the sense of taste." 

Of course it is understood that in speaking of "Phinuit" in 
this way it was merely lor convenience, to indicate the seem- 
ingly distinct personality who talked while I was in trance. 

At another time some onion was put into my mouth. It 
^was reported by the Society for Psychical Research that "Dr. 
Phinuit seemed to taste the onion. The tongue moved 
about in the mouth and smacked on the lips for several sec- 
onds." 

I had among other sit tings when in New York one at the 
house of a doctor. The "control" was the one known as 
"George Pelham." An Italian lady was the sitter. It was 
in the report that Pelham gave the first names of both sitter 
and communicator, very uncommon names. The name of 
her dead sister was given. The Italian words for "It is 
well, patience, patience," were whispered by me at the end of 
.the sitting. 

I never called the people who came to me "my sitters" but 
"my clients." The upstairs room, my working room, where 
I used to see them in my own home, I always called the red 
room, because of the color of the wall paper and decoration. 
I also have there my little writing desk and my sewing ma- 
chine. 

My last impersonations were called "Imperator," "Rector" 
and "Pruden." 

In deciding to release myself from "Imperator" I do not 
wish to antagonize any student of psychical phenomena, either 
here or in Europe, but I do not believe that the genuine spir- 
it of science can be antagonized, nor any of those who humbly 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 147 

love science as Professor Agassiz loved it, ever ready to "ap- 
peal to nature," and like him, look through nature up to na- 
ture's God. 

Because the spiritistic theory does not appeal to me after 
my experience I do not deny to any mortal a perfect right 
to accept it, if it seems consistent. 

I have never heard of anything being said by myself while 
in a trance state which might not have been latent in (i) my 
own mind, (2) in the mind of the person in charge of the sit- 
ting, (3) in the mind of the person who was trying to get 
communication with some one in another state of existence, 
or some companion present with such person, or (4) in the 
mind of some absent person alive somewhere else in the 
world. 

Not one of us present may have been conscious of any 
knowledge of facts stated, yet somewhere in my mysterious 
subliminal consciousness, which was in abnormal activity 
when I was in condition, the knowledge might have rested 
unknown to myself in my waking life. It might in the same 
manner have been latent in the mind of one of those present 
and have been transferred by unconscious telepathy from 
one of their minds to my own. 

The wonders of wireless telegraphy and the use of the 
X-ray developed of late years in the realm of physical science 
make me feel that it would not be becoming, for me to say 
what may or may not be possible transferrence of thought in 
the subjective mind by laws not yet formulated. My read- 
ing has not shown me that all the laws of the objective mind 
are understood. 

I have said that if the knowledge of facts stated by me 
while in the condition was not latent with me or with any of 
those present in the room wiith me at the time of a sitting, it 
might still have been in the mind of some other person alive 
somewhere in the world. It might have been latent, or it 
might have been active knowledge, and have been transfer- 
red to the mind of one of those in the room, then to my sub- 
jective mind, then automatically uttered or written by me. I 
do not find it is as hard to grasp this theory as that of a dis- 
embodied spirit telling the things. 

If thought could be unconsciously transferred to me from 
a person in the room I do not see any reason why that person 
could not have received a thought message from somebody 



148 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

at a long distance and then telephoned it, so to speak, in 
thought, direct to me. If telepathy is possible between two 
peeple, why not among three, just the same as with tele- 
graphy? 

Everybody is familiar with the common coincidence of let- 
ters crossing between two people who had not written for a 
long time and who then wrote to each other at the same time. 
Distance does not seem to make any difference about such 
meetings, in, perhaps, the spirit; there are many instances of 
that sort of human wireless telegraphy; there are also in- 
stances of a third person learning by the same means of facts 
known to two other persons. 

An interesting case of what seems like direct thought trans- 
ference in the subjective mind was when I gave intelligible 
answers, in English, of course, while in the condition to ques- 
tions asked of me by a sitter in Italian, a language I do not 
understand. All the communication seemed to be entirely 
between the subliminal thought of the sitter and myself. I. 
sometimes think that may be the way we shall all talk to each 
other when in the future state. 

It has sometimes happened that things I have said at a sit- 
ting were not at all consoling or important to those who were 
trying to satisfy their minds or hearts by these psychical ex- 
periments. 

Once when an old Boston physician had a sitting with me it 
seems that I talked most about a pencil which was put into 
my hands, it having been the property of a, deceased friend. 
When I came out of the condition he drew himself up in his 
chair and said, with excusable gruffness: — 

"What made you talk about nothing but the top of an old 
pencil? Why didn't you talk about God and the angels;" 

"What do you know about God and the angels?'' I could 
not help retorting. He was good enough to smile, for of 
course the pencil was part of the scientific test and the other 
talk would not have been. 

Once when another and still more famous Boston doctor 
came to see me. he said afterward that he "found Mrs. Piper 
huffy, but got on the good side of her by caressing her child- 
ren.'' 

A literary man said: — "I know Mrs. Piper is conscious, 
because she listened when the door bell rang." One sitter 
asked me if I had the face of my clock illuminated so that I 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 149 

could know when the hour was up, as I did not make it a 
practice to remain in the condition for more than an hour at 
a time. It has, however, at times been much longer. 

Cultivated people have often been surprised at first meet- 
ings that I did not seem peculiar or unlike other women, and 
some of them expressed their wonder. 

When I was taken to England the wife of one of the cele- 
brated English men of science met me with the explanation 
to her husband: — 

"Is this Mrs. Piper? You don't mean to tell me that this 
is Mrs. Piper! ' Then to me: — "I thought you would be sure 
to be very fat, and like magneta color and wear friselettes!" 

These words in her rich English voice made us both smile, 
but we afterward became good friends. 

I have been so fortunate as to make good friends and 
pleasant acquaintances through my work. Some of them do 
and some do not believe that spirits have spoken through 
me. I do not think that even those who do have liked to 
see me mentioned in print, as I hav f e been, as "the human 
telephone to the next world." 

Such expressions were of course never used concerning 
m'e in the reports of the Psychical Research Society or in 
such articles as those of Mr. Lang, or of Professor Hyslop in 
the Literary Digest, the Arena, &c; in Mrs. Katherine Till- 
man Bull's article in Harper's Magazine last year, or in any 
similar articles published at home or abroad. I am grateful 
for all thoughtful, profound or kindly intentioned articles. 
I am aware that I run the risk of the disapprobation of some 
people by voluntarily ceasing to be a "case" for study. But 
most students and lovers of science and humanity will, I 
hope, understand. 

Phillips Brooks said in a public address: — "There is a be- 
lief in God which does not bring Him, nay, rather say, does 
not let Him come into close contact with our daily life. The 
very reverence with which we honor God may make us shut 
Him out from the hard tasks and puzzling problems with 
which we have to do. Many of us who call ourselves theists 
are like the savages who in tlie desire to honor the wonderful 
sun dial which has been given them built a roof over it. Break 
down the roof; let God in on vour life!" 



150 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

He also said: — "How every truth attains to its enlargement 
and reality in this great truth, that the soul of man carries the 
highest possibilities within itself." 

LEONORA E. PIPER. 



THE SUBJECT RESUMED. 

The New York Herald, in addition to the statement of Mrs. 
Piper published the views of some other eminent gentlemen. 

Among others the Herald published views from both Prof. 
Hyslop, Dr. Richard Hodgson and Dr. Thomson Jay Hud- 
son, but as these gentlemen have contributed to the discus- 
sion the Herald's version of their views is not quoted here. 

Prof. Wm. James, of Harvard, is quoted by the Herald in 
the same issue, as follows: — 

Prof. Wm. James, Professor of Psychology at Harvard, 

said: — 

"Taking everything that I know of Mrs. Piper into account, the 
result is to make me feel absolutely certain that she knows things 
in her trances that she cannot possibly have had knowledge of in 
a waking state, and that the definite philosophy of her trances is 
yet to be found. 

The Herald still further quotes Prof. James as follows: — 
"As regards the spiritualistic hypothesis, I am still 'on the fence.' 
I said something about the alternatives to it in a notice of Hodg- 
son's report on Mrs. P., which I wrote for the Psychological Re- 
view in 1898. WILLIAM JAMES. 
"Silver Lake, N. H., Sept. 18, 1901." 

"Mrs. Piper's trance memory then is no ordinary human memory, 
and we have to explain its singular perfection either as the natural 
endowment of her solitary subliminal self or as a collection of dia- 
tinct memory systems, each with a communicating "spirit as its ve- 
hicle. The choice obviously cannot be made offhand. If I may 
be allowed a personal expression of opinion at the end of this no- 
tice, I would say that the Piper phenomena are the most absolutely 
baffling thing I know. 

"Of the various applicable hypotheses, each seems more unnat- 
ural than the rest. Any definitely known form of fraud seems out 
of the question; yet undoubtedly, could it may be made probable, 
fraud would be by far the most satisfying explanation, since it 
would leave no further problems outstanding. 

"The spirit hypothesis exhibits a vacancy, triviality and incoher- 
ence of mind painful to think of as the state of the departed; and 
coupled therewithal a pretension to impress one, a disposition to 
'fish' and face round and disguise the essential hollowness which 
are, if anything, more painful still. Mr. Hodgson has to resort to 
the theory that, although the communications probably are spirits, 



Note by the Editor : 

For fear that questions might be raised as to the correctness of the 
New York Herald's report respecting tjie views of Professor James, I 
wrote him as to the accuracy of the Herald's report. Professor James 
replied that the Herald's report was substantially correct. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 151 

they are in a semi-comatose or sleeping state while communicating, 
and only half aware of what is going on, while the habits of Mrs. 
Piper's neural organism largely supply the definite form of words, 
&c, in which the phenomenon is clothed. 

"Then, there is the theory that the subliminal extension of Mrs. 
Piper's own mind masquerades in this way, and plays these fan- 
tastic tricks before high heaven, using its preternatural powers of 
cognition and memory for the basest of deceits. Many details make 
for this view, which also falls well into line with what we know of 
automatic writing and similar subliminal performances in the pub- 
lic at large. 

"But what a ghastly and grotesque sort of appendage to one's 
personality is this, from any point of view! The humbugging and 
masquerading extra-marginal self is as great a paradox for psychol- 
ogy as the comatose spirits are for pneumatology. 

"Finally we may fall back on the notion of a sort of floating 
mind-stuff in the world, intra-human, yet possessed of fragmentary- 
gleams of superhuman cognition, unable to gather itself together 
except by taking advantage of the trance states of some existing 
human organism and there enjoying a parasitic existence, which ft 
proongs by making itself acceptable and plausible under the im- 
provised name of a spirit control. 

"On any of these theories our 'classic human life,' as we may call 
it, seems to connect itself with an environment so 'romantic' as to 
baffle all one's habitual sense of teleology and moral meaning, 
and yet there seems no refuge for one really familiar with the Piper 
phenomena — or doubtless with others that are similar — from ad- 
mitting one or other, perhaps even all of these fantastic prolong- 
ations of mental life into the unknown. 

"The world is evidently more complex than we are accustomed 
to think it, the absolute 'world ground' in particular being further 
off than it is the wont of either the usual empiricisms or the usual 
idealisms to think it." 

The Herald also publishes the following statement by Wil- 
liam S. Walsh, Esq.: — 

"The woman in this case is an excellent and irreproachable char- 
acter. She is Mrs. Piper, a resident of Arlington Heights, near 
Boston. Her husband is a tailor in very moderate circumstances. 
She has two children. Her age is about thirty-eight. She is an? 
intelligent woman, but not what you would call an intellectual one. 
She is neither handsome nor homely, neither tall nor short, neither 
blonde nor brunette. She is just an average woman — a good wife 
and a good mother, as thank Heaven! the average woman of the 
United States has ever been. 

"In 1882 or thereabouts she underwent a dangerous surgical oper- 
ation. The physician who brought her through successfully was 
a spiritualist by belief. He detected in her spiritualistic possibil- 
ities. With her consent he made a medium of her, just the aver- 
age, ordinary medium, who gives spiritualistic seances for a con- 
sideration. 

"But. unlike many of her fellow workers, Mrs. Piper was abso- 
lutely honest. She had no explanation to offer of the strange pow- 
ers with which she found herself endowed. She had no conscious- 
ness of what happened during the hypnotic trance. When she re- 
turned to her normal state she had no remembrance of what she 
had said or done, or what other forces had said or done through her 
agency. 

"It was this transparent simplicity and ingenuousness of char- 
acter, this lack of the hocus and mumbo jumbo of ordinary med- 
iumship, that made Mrs. Piper conspicuous above the common herd 
of clairvoyants and similar charlatans. 



152 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

"For fourteen years or more she has been under the close obser- 
vation, first of Professor James, afterward of Dr. Hodgson and oth- 
er competent persons. 

"She and her husband have been shadowed by detectives. Her 
personal luggage has been searched, her correspondence read, her 
goings out and comings in closely watched. Yet, in all these years 
not the smallest circumstance has come to light reflecting in any 
way upon her honesty. 

"Certainly no other medium has ever been subjected to so strin- 
gent an ordeal. And, in view of the fact that, under far more mea- 
gre supervision, Dr. Hodgson himself and other less competent in- 
quirers have succeeded in bringing home the charge of dishonesty 
to many professional mediums, it is a fact entitled to much weight 
that this medium should have passed through the most searching 
and prolonged inquiries without even a rumor of exposure or the 
•discovery of any suspicious circumstances. 

"And so it was that she attracted an uncommon class of patrons. 
Educated and intelligent people flocked to her. Among the rest 
came Professor William James, of Harvard University. 

"He hardly needs an introduction to our readers. Son of Henry 
James, the mystic; brother of Henry James, the novelist, and he 
himself the greatest of living American psychologists. 

"It has been said of him and of his better known but no less emi- 
nent brother that the one writes psychology like a novelist and the 
•other writes novels like a psychologist. In other words both are 
possessed of imagination as well as insight, but the imagination of 
the psychologist, though most restrained by scientific methods, is 
most in evidence. 

"As one of the vice presidents of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search Professor James was naturally attracted to a case of med- 
iumship which seemed to invite the serious attention of the society 
and its officers. 

"In 1885-86 he visited Mrs. Piper about a dozen times and sent a 
large number of persons to her, making appointments himsef for 
most of these people, whose names were in no instance announced 
to the medium. His investigations convinced him that Mrs. Piper 
was a person of supernormal powers. 

"As to the exact meaning and value of those powers, his attitude 
has been and is very frankly that of suspended judgment. Of one 
thing only is he certain — the suspicion of fraud in untenable. He 
almost wishes this was not so, for if this suspicion could be made 
plausible, 'fraud would be by far the most satisfying explanation, 
since it would leave no further problem outstanding.' 

"But the fraud hypothesis being eliminated, bewildering problems 
remain waiting for an answer. He therefore called the attention 
of the society to this extraordinary case, with the hope that some 
light might be thrown upon the attendandt probems. 

"These are the words with which he introduced Mrs. Piper: — 'In 
order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white 
■crow is sufficient. My white crow is Mrs. Piper.' " 

The Herald also quotes Dr. F. Wallace Patch of the Mas- 
sachusetts General Hospital: — 

"It is a pleasure for me to say that the Herald, replying to a ques- 
tion in regard to my acquaintance with Mrs. Piper, long known as 
the gifted instrument of the Society for Psychical Research, that she 
is a woman of rare sweetness of nature, fair minded, just and truth- 
ful. She has good mental qualities and is perfectly capable of ex- 
«ncising discretion in matters with which she may be connected. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 153 

"Her position of open mindedness on psychical matters is most re- 
freshing to meet in one who has been through her peculiar exper- 
iences. This renders her work all the more valuable from a scien- 
tific standpoint, whether we see fit to accept or discard the once 
prevalent doctrine of Spiritualism. 

"It would seem to one who has followed the discussions on this 
subject for many years that the spiritualistic theory utterly fails to 
account tor the phenomena of so-called 'mediumship.' We can nev- 
er hope to form a union between the individualities of Heaven and 
those of earth by any such finite means as those in question. 

"It is probable that the phenomena of the trance state will yet be 
adequately explained — if, indeed they are not already so — along the 
well known lines of hypnosis, mental suggestion and telepathy. The 
seeming mystery will quietly melt away as the further light of mod- 
ern research penetrates more deeply the mass of evidence now gath 
<«ring." 



NATURAL OR SUPERNATURAL? 
"SPIRITS" OR TELEPATHY? 



BY F. E. DANIEL, M. D., AUSTIN, TEXAS, 
Vice-chairman, Section Psychology, Medico-Legal Society, &c. 



It has ever been the tendency of the human mind to attri- 
bute to super-natural causes, phenomena which cannot be ex- 
plained or accounted for by natural laws. It has not been 
a great many years since all electrical phenomena were so re- 
garded, and at one period in the world's history even thun- 
der and lightning were said to be an expression of the "wrath 
of Jove." To this day, the ignorant assign to some extra 
natural agency certain phenomena which the more enlighten- 
ed understand perfectly well. And this is quite natural. 
But in this age of enlightenment, and progress in every line 
of human thought and achievement — unless I except theology 
— it is to me most surprising that educated men. — men of 
strong mentality, vigorous intellect and reasoning powers 
cultivated and stimulated by study, reflection and daily exer- 
cise and practice, should still hold on to the worn out and ex- 
ploded doctrine of "spiritism" or ''vitalism." These dog- 
mas of the church dominated the intellectual world for ages, 
and kept the human mind in the bonds of superstition. They 
held that man's life, or "spirit" was. "from himself a thing" 
apart;" a something — ■nothing, — external to man. which en- 
tered his body at birth, dominated it, controlled it. shaped 
his acts, and at death left the body and maintained a sepa- 
rate existence for all time and eternity. To hear able, and 
otherwise sensible men speak seriously of "disembodied spir- 
its," and of "communications from the dead to the living" 
strikes me as being absurd. For my part, I utterly repudi- 
ate all such agency as "spirits." It is superstition pure and 
simple. The "dead" cannot ''communicate with the living." 
There is no such thing as ''spirit,' any more than there are 




F. E. DANIEL, M. D., 

Vice-Chairman Psychological Section. 

Fditor Texas Medical Journal. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 155 

''angels," with material wings; both are purely mythical. It 
is transcendental. Man cannot know anything except through 
his senses. Hence, all knowledge is empirical. He can 
conceive of nothing that he cannot symbolize in his mind, 
hence the attempt to symbolize God results in the anthropo- 
morphic idea of God. True, man can have a reasonable 
faith in the existence of things which he cannot know, — 
which cannot be rendered tangible to any of his senses. He 
can arrive at conclusions,often correct, by reasoning from the 
known to the unknown. By inductive reasoning he ''knows" 
that atoms exist,that ether exists. No man ever saw an atom; 
but there is reason for the belief or faith that atoms do exist. 
In this way, reasoning from observed effects on the neigh- 
boring planets, and without ever looking into the sky, Lever- 
rier reached the conclusion that there was a large body out- 
side of and beyond the orbit of Uranus. He sent his calcu- 
lations to the observer at Berlin, and told him to turn his 
telescope to a certain point in the heavens at a certain hour, 
and he would find a large planet, which, he was sure, must be 
there. Behold, the discovery of Xeptune. 

Matter (mass) may be divided and subdivided until the van- 
ishing point is reached. There is no reason for the belief in 
"spirits," and no proof or evidence can be adduced in sup- 
port of the belief. It is contrary to reason and common 
sense. It is a falling back upon the supernatural to account 
for the phenomena which, in the present state of the human 
mind and knowledge are inexplicable, but which, in time, will 
be understood and accounted for by natural laws. The be- 
lief in "spiritual beings," "disembodied spirits." — "immaterial 
substance," it is called, (a contradiction of terms) is not hard 
to account for on the principle of heredity and (misdirected) 
education. The idea of a "spiritual being" without form or 
shape — (concepts of the human mind) — and having no cor- 
poreal existence, but yet is credited with the physiological 
functions of a material organism — finds the culmination of 
absurdity in that dogma which ascribes to a "spirit" or 
"gftost" (called "holy") the powers of reproduction of the 
human species — purely a human physiological act. Men 
Jaugh at the amours of the mythical Jupiter of the Greeks, 
whose chief pastime seems to have been the begetting of 
children by men's wives, yet they accept in all serious- 
ness the statement that the Jupiter of the Jews, "Jove," "Je- 



156 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

hovah," "Yehveh," the myth upon which the Christian relig- 
ion is founded, "overshadowed" a 'virgin' and begot a son, 
who, like the progeny of Jupiter, at death, ''ascended into 
heaven'' and became a god. This is superstition in its rank- 
est form, a "miracle," and yet learned men believe it. Parth- 
enogenesis, ("fthe creation of a new individual of a species 
from a female cell without the intervention of the male ele- 
ment"), is an established fact in biology, but has never been 
known to occur in man or any of' the higher animals, but it 
does occur in certain plants, and in certain of the lower forms 
of animal life. (Alternate generation. Heterogamy.) 

The late Professor Norman, of the University of Texas, at 
one time thought that he had produced young sea urchins by 
chemical means, from the unfertilized ova of the female; and 
Professor Loeb of the University of Chicago, is now engaged 
and with hope of success, in endeavoring to produce, syn- 
thetically, the "male element," whereby he expects to fertil- 
ize the ova of the sea urchin, and thus produce a living ani- 
mal. 

Surely those learned gentlemen who hold to the faith 
("faith, the sleep of reason") in a spiritual existence, and talk 
and write learnedly of "disembodied spirits," attributing to 
them the physiological functions of the living organism, have 
not made themselves acquainted with the wonderful advances 
and discoveries in physiology, chemistry, embryology, anat- 
omy, and in general physics, that have been made and be- 
come public property in the last half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. I will speak of this later. 

I take the mechanical view of life, that held by most phys- 
icists and biologists, and taught by the great expounders of 
the monistic philosophy, and of what has come to be known 
as the Science of Energy or Energetics. 

I assume that those who read this are sufficiently familiar 
with the Law of Conservation of Energy and the Correlation 
of Forces, promulgated (1845) by Robert Mayer, a young 
physician of Wurtenburg, and elaborated and forever firmly 
fixed in the mind of all scientists by Helmholtz in his cele- 
brated essay on the subject; and with the Law of the Inde- 
structibility of Matter (Lavoisier. 1789). "nothing is created, 
nothing is lost, all is change of forms." — and I need not do 
more than allude to them, further than to say that the Science 
of Energetics applies to all phenomena, seeks to explain all 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 15T 

phenomena of the universe, including those of human life. 
It embraces and unifies all other sciences, and has brought or 
will bring them under its dominion. "According to most 
physicists the phenomena of the universe call into play, two,, 
and only two, elementary and fundamental things; to wit: 
matter and energy. All that we see consists of changes in 
the one or the other of these two forms. This, one might 
say, is the postulate of experimental science." (A Dastre. 
Revue des Deux Maudes, 1898.) 

I need not say that all energy is derived from the sun; nor 
more than allude to the reciprocal functions of animal life and 
plant life. Plants store the sun's energy, and we find it, af- 
ter millions of years, still stored in the coal we dig from the 
bowels of the earth, where it has remained all these centur- 
ies in the latent or potential state. Plants split up the car- 
bon dioxide of the air, freeing the oxygen, — man's vital nec- 
essity and that of all breathing animals, and store the carbon 
in wood, starch and sugar. It is the action of oxygen on the 
carbon, whether in coal or wood, or in our own aliment, (es- 
sentially carbon and nitrogen compounds) which liberates this 
energy, converting it from the latent, or potential state into 
active (kinetic) energy. This, in the animal economy is sub- 
divided or specialized, and expressed in the various well 
known forms of 'radiant' energy, 'thermal' energy, 'kinetic' or 
moving energy, 'chemical' energy, and 'electric' energy, (in- 
cluding magnetic). These forms are all correlated, and are 
intrd-convertible, transformable, the one into the other, ex- 
cept heat energy. That is not transformable directly, into 
any other form of energy. Take the locomotive for an il- 
lustration. The combustion of the coal put into the furnace 
(a chemical process, oxidation) liberates the potential energy 
stored in the coal by the sun. It is expressed in those "modes 
of motion" (molecular) known as heat and light. The heat 
changes the molecular arrangement of the water in the boil- 
er, converting it into an expansive vapor, which, being con- 
fined seeks to escape, and thus drives the piston which moves 
the engine and train, (mechanical energy, kinetic energy.) 
The steam also propels the dynamo, whereby a part of this 
liberated energy is "specialized," and transformed into elec- 
eric energy, which is expressed in the head light that blazes 
on the locomotive's front, and in the incandescent light,, 
whereby the coaches are lighted. 



158 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

Man's energy, (his life force) and that of all animals is de- 
rived from the food put into his stomach, and from the re- 
serves of nutrition already stored in his tissues. All food 
that has nutritive value, is essentially carbon and nitrogen in 
endless combination. The liberation and conversion of this 
latent (potential) energy is effected by chemical means, oxi- 
dation, combustion, and it is expressed in all the phenomena 
associated with the life of the animal; heat, muscular motion, 
(kinetic energy, mechanical or "work" energy;) secretion, di- 
gestion, assimilation, metabolism (destructive and construc- 
tive*) and consciousness, the fundamental state upon which 
rests the mind, with its multifarious phases or functions of 
thought, volition, memory, ideation, all the higher intellect- 
ual faculties. How consciousness arises no one knows, yet, 
any more than he knows how iife' began — what gave to "mat 
ter" (protoplasm, the primitive cell), sensation, motion and 
I am sometimes disposed to think intelligence, consciousness. 
But consciousness is doubtless a product of the food taken 
into the stomach. It is a part of the life energy liberated by 
the chemical reaction between carbon compounds of the ali- 
ment, (and the tissue reserves) and the oxygen taken in 
through the lungs, and is specialized or told off for special 
work, by the wonderful electro-chemico dynamic apparatus 
we call the 'nervous system,' properly, the net work of special 
cells, (neurons) that ramify in and connect every part of the 
body. It is electrical. The mind in all its phases, is the 
function or product of the brain. It is a force, a specialized 
force, and is electrical. We see, hear, feel, think and act by 
electricity. The touch, the thrilling kiss, is but an electrical 
discharge. This force, the mind, can be directed by the will. 
It is a power capable of overcoming gravitation and lifting 
ponderable matter, to some extent. We have the authority 
of Elliot Coues for saying that he has seen three legs of a 
heavy dining table leave the floor, when he and his wife were 
alone in the room, and without the application of any other 
force than that of the mind. He calls it "levitation.'' It can 
be directed towards a person, say across a hall, or church, or 
theatre, and that person be made to feel it. It will wake a 
sleeping person to look at him — the force being expressed 

* "The power that organized bodies possess of continually using up and 
renewing the matter composing the body." Cuvier's "vital vortex," the 
endless circulation of matter and energy from the outside world through 
the human system by ingestion, secretion and excretion. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 159 

through the eyes. We all know how an eloquent speaker 
can sway meri's thoughts, and move them to overt acts, — 
even to commit violence. 

The mind, then, (and when I say mind, I mean all that is 
understood by the term), including what is called the 'soul/ 
whatever that may be thought to be, is electrical energy, gen- 
crated by chemical action, and is purely mechanical; it is a 
mode of motion, generated by a living organ, the brain, and 
:as surely ceases when the combustion which has produced it 
•ceases, when the brain dies, as does the flame of a lamp when 
the oil or wick gives out. I can as nearly understand and 
^believe that the light of the incandescent lamp by which I pen 
this, exists and persists, for all time, as this special and in- 
dividual, separate light, as that a life force, generated in pre- 
cisely the same way (combustion, oxidation of carbon) and 
specialized into the electrical form of energy, can continue 
.after the death of the organ, and consequent cessation of the 
processes whereby it was produced. It is now known that 
all animal life is of a kind, differing only in degree of devel- 
opment; and if man has a "spirit," (spirare, to breathe) or a 
"soul" (psucho, breath, to breathe), every breathing animal, 
at least, has a spirit or soul. In fact the line cannot be 
•drawn anywhere from the amoba or the moneron, to man. 

I conceive of life then, in all its phenomena, including the 
psychic, as chemical in its origin, chemical in the union of the 
male and female cell in utero — an expression of chemical af- 
finity in exact fulfillment of an immutable law, and that the 
building* up of the resulting embryo — and fetus — and child — 
.and finally the man, is a purely mechanical process; the re- 
sult of combustion, the conversion of potential into active en- 
ergy which is expressed in all the various modes of molecu- 
lar motion, kinetic energy, radiant energy, thermic energy, 
electrical (including magnetic) energy; and is exactly com- 
parable to the process we see in the furnace and the lamp. I 
will not here enter into an explanation of what is called the 
""initial impulse" which starts the combustion, the respiratory 
process whereby the oxygen is admitted and the dioxid of 
carbon is exhaled; but being started, like a fire, it continues 
to burn, as long as fuel (food) is supplied. If any one doubt 
that consciousness and all mental states are evolved from 
the aliment, within and by, the human machine, let him with- 
hold all food and see how long consciousness will remain. It 



160 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

would be as reasonable, it seems to me, to speak of the im- 
mortality of digestion, as of the immortality of the spirit, for 
the 'spirit' is the breath, the function of respiration, the in- 
take of oxygen, the output of carbon dioxid. 

The question of soul — spirit — life, — of consciousness, is not 
transcendental. It is purely a physiological problem, — part- 
ly already solved in the biological laboratory. When solved 
it will be found to fall within the domain of physics and 
chemistry, and come under the laws which govern molecular 
mechanics. There are no 'two minds.' 1 am not acquaint- 
ed with any authority that admits the postulate upon which- 
Mr. Hudson bases his elaborate "Laws of Psychic Phenom- 
ena/' unless I except Mjaudsley, and I think he was laboring, 
under a delusion, just as, in my opinion, Mr. Hudson is. 

There are many phases of one mind, consciousness being 
fundamental. Consciousness is a part of the higher activi- 
ties of the mind, (soul?) and as such, is dependent on the nor- 
mal structure of its psychic organ, the brain. 

The most important discovery in the anatomy and physiol- 
ogy of the brain in recent years is that of the organs ok 
thought. (Flechsig). "They are the real organs of mental 
life; the highest instruments of psychic activity that produce 
thought and consciousness. At death their psychic activity- 
is extinguished like every other physiological function.'' 
(Haeckel.) This, and other discoveries and advances along 
the lines of biological (zoological) research, and in general 
physics have, in the scientific mind, destroyed the myth of 
"spiritism;" but blind faith, faith in most preposterous things, 
faith in "miracles" — by heredity and ceaseless iteration and" 
reiteration by tongue and pen, is so firmly fixed in the mind 
of the great majority, the enlightened (on all else) as well as 
the unenlightened, that reason will never uproot it. 

Mrs. Piper's exhibitions of a wonderful faculty as little un- 
derstood by herself as by anyone else, defy, in the present 
state of knowledge, a satisfactory explanation. Clairvoyance 
and clairaudience, Dr. R. M. Bucke, of London, (Evolution 
of the Human Mind, New York Med. Record) calls "the 
dawning of a sixth sense." I, of course, offer not a sugges- 
tion of an explanation. I incline to the belief, however, that 
"telepathy" gives a cue which, like the mythical thread given 
Theseus by the beautiful Ariadne, would, when he shall have 
slain the, Minotaur, lead him out of the Cretan? labyrinth, may 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 161 

guide us to light. I am satisfied in my own mind that, how- 
ever inexplicable all the manifestations of this mysterious fac- 
ulty, all the so-called psychic phenomena witnessed at her 
seances are, — they were the emanations from a living brain, 
present or absent. 

Regarding mind as an electrical form of energy, a force 
which expresses itself in such puzzling phenomena, a mode 
of molecular motion, waves — vibrations — bearing a strong 
resemblance to the electrical energy generated artificially, 
and which the immortal Marconi has demonstrated can be 
projected through space and awaken response on the part 
of a suitable receiver 2,000 miles away, I see no reason why, 
at no remote day, the laws that govern what we all are bound 
to recognize as thought transference, clairvoyance, etc., 
should not be revealed to man by investigation along this 
line. The gateway has been opened by Helmholtz and 
Hertz: the possibility of transmission of electrical energy 
thro' space has been demonstrated by the great Marconi, 
"psychic phenomena' , may, in time, be explained upon the 
principle and in accordance with the laws that govern all elec- 
trical phenomena. 

I append two quotations quite apropos of .the subject, and 
with which my views are entirely in accord. 

"The principle of energy, and the correlative idea of the 
unity of natural forces on the basis of a common origin are 
now accepted by all competent physicists, and are regarded 
as the greatest advance of physics in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury." — Haeckle, Riddle of The Universe. 

"The phenomena of life can and should be explained solely 
by the working of the physical forces which control the ma- 
terial universe. Among those forces electricity plays a pre- 
dominating part.'* (Ernest Solvay, Address at Brussels, De- 
cember, 1893.) 

fin an article like this, which must conform to the require- 
ments of the occasion (a symposium, etc., "views as to psy- 
chic phenomena, tersely expressed") I cannot go into a dis- 
cussion of the question raised by other contributors as to the 
nature and limitations of telepathy; whether it is limited to 
two persons, or may be transmitted through several living 
brains. Nor can T even allude to the details of electrical en- 



162 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

ergy as generated in the living animal organism — and its 
mode of transmission; nor touch Faraday's (now accepted) 
theory of electrified or vitalized atoms.] 



Note by the Editor : 

The Brain is the organ of the mind— the instrument the mind employs 
in its wOrk. It is impossible to say that the mind is the product of the 
brain. Thought is the production of the mind and in a sense "thought" 
maybe called the product of the mind, as the result of the use of the 
instrument on which the thought is created. The same as the tune or ar- 
rangement of some product by the artist on the violin. That tune is 
only a memory, but like thought it is an entity. The mind is undoubt- 
edly a force, a specialized force, an electrical force, but is not a 
function or a product of the brain. We have no evidence that the mind 
is generated by chemical action, or that the soul of man is within the 
law of physics, chemistry or molecular mechanics. It would require an 
imagination of great activity to accept any such hypothesis. It would 
not be in accord with our ideas or knowledge of natural laws. We shall 
be willing to recognize anv truth that science demonstrates or brings to 
our consciousness. It has not yet come to us. Dr. Daniel, who haa no 
faith in matters spiritual, shows a magnificent faith in the final illumina- 
tion which may come some day to his consciousness, and which he sees 
already with the eyes of his marvelous faith. The blind devotee of any 
form of religious faith has never reached the heights and attenuations of 
such a mind, that can accept his hopes, his aspirations and his dreams, 
even, instead of demonstration* "Faith is said to be the evidence of 
things hoped for, but not seen," and this superb and splendid 
illumination of the scientist, contrasted with the similar phantasies 
(as he regards them) of religious believers, exhibits marvellous examples 
of the mysterious workings of a human soul. No! "There are more 
things in Heaven and earth than are dreamed of in thy Philosophy, 
Horatio." 



CONCLUSION AND SUMMING UP OF THE 
DISCUSSION. 



BY THOMSON JAY HUDSON, PH. D., IX. D. 



Has spiritism no better method of refuting the arguments 
in favor of the telepathic theory than to exaggerate, distort 
and misrepresent it in order to find an excuse for answering 
it with a point-blank denial or a sneer? It seems not. 

Dr. Hodgson, the official spiritistic propagandist of the S. 
P. R., set the pace some years ago, and the rest have obe- 
diently followed in his foot steps ever since. Thus, in his re- 
port on the Piper phenomena (See p. 394, Part XXXIII., 
Proc. S. P. R.), he tells us just what must be presupposed if 
we are to accept the telepathic explanation of said phenom- 
ena. To do the learned Doctor justice, he begins by can- 
didly admiting that "if the information given at the sittings, 
both in matter and form, was limited to the knowledge pos- 
sessed by the sitters, we should have no hesitation in sup- 
posing that it was derived from their minds, telepathically or 
otherwise." But, as some of the information given out was 
held not to be thus limited, he proceeds to say: 

"We must then make the arbitrary suppositions that Mrs. 
Piper's percipient personality gets into relation with the 
minds of distant living persons, (1) who are intimate friends 
of the sitters at the time of the sitting, and (2) who are 
scarcely known, or not at all known, to the sitter. And 
many of these distant living persons had, so far as they knew, 
never been near Mrs. Piper. These cases then compel us to 
assume a selective capacity in Mrs Piper's percipient person- 
ality, and not only selective as to the occurrences themselves, 
but discriminative as to the related persons." 

If all this were true, it must be confessed that the telepath- 
ic hypothesis would be hedged about with serious logical dif- 
ficulties. Fortunately it is not true, as I shall show later on. 



164 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

But this is nothing compared with the logical consequences 
involved in the telepathic hypothesis, which are, in part, set 
forth by Dr. Hodgson in words following, to wit: 

"And I may add here that these arbitrary suppositions mav 
be increased yet further to cover other forms of evidence 
that may be obtained hereafter, such as the giving of infor- 
mation supposed to be possessed by the dead alone, or the 
manifestation of knowledge not yet acquired by the human 
race, so far as we are aware, such as the existence of heaven- 
ly bodies previously unknown, or the customs of the inhabit- 
ants of other planets, verified, let us assume, in future years." 

It will thus be seen that the learned Doctor has found no 
difficulty in frightening himself away from the telepathic hy- 
pothesis by the simple process of constructing a few "arbi- 
trary suppositions/' And it must be admitted that the "sup- 
position'' that the inhabitants of this earth can communicate 
telepathically with the inhabitants of "unknown" planets, is 
well calculated to frighten almost anybody who is not a spir- 
itist, especially if he is told that he must believe it as a log- 
ical penalty for believing in the telepathic explication of Mrs. 
Piper's phenomena. 

But, robust and strenuous as are Dr. Hodgson's supposi- 
tions, they are feeble in comparison with those of his pupil. 
Dr. Hyslop. As I have shown in my opening article, that 
gentleman holds that the telepathic explanation of the Piper 
phenomena is absolutely untenable except under the presup- 
position that that lady is"omniscient."or at the least is endow- 
ed with the ability to draw at will upon "the whole universe 
of intelligence." Thus believing, he is enabled to quiet his 
logical conscience when he ignores the real issue in the case. 

Hon. Luther R. Marsh is another who finds a way to avoid 
the "necessity for argument by the same general process. He 
tells us that the telepathic hypothesis requires the assumption 
that the sitter must be omniscient, or words to that effect. 
That is to say, his mind must be filled with "an endless arcana 
of knowledge," — "chuck-full" of "all things that have ever 
transpired in the world, and in the spirit sphere." 

This is a decided modification of the assumptions 
of Doctors Hodgson and Hyslop, who hold that 
the telepathic hypothesis requires us to assume that the med- 
ium is "omniscient." To do Mr. Marsh entire justice 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 106 

it must be said that his assumption is just as sensible, and just 
as near the truth, as that of Doctors Hodgson and Hyslop. 
They are both designed, apparently, to exaggerate the claims 
of their opponents for the purpose of denying them. 

Judge Dailey presents another modification of the same 
polemical weapon. It is not so extravagant as those we 
have named; but the design is identical. I refer to what he 
says of my proposition relating to telepathy by three. He 
quotes the proposition and then proceeds to say that it means 
something that is obviously foreign to its plain import. (See 
Judge Dailey's article.) 

And now comes the Rev. Dr. Savage, with still another 
modification of the same assumption, in which ''unlimited 
powers" and "universal knowledge" is supposed to be neces- 
sary to enable the medium to do her work by the aid of tele- 
pathy. (See his article under the sub-head of "Telepathic 
Theory.") 

Now, let us examine this question in the light of what is 
known of telepathic powers, and see if these extravagant as- 
sumptions are really a necessary part of the telepathic theory 
when it is invoked to account for spiritistic phenomena. 

First, however, let us try to find a common ground of 
agreement, to the end that the issue may be more clearly de- 
fined. I think I may take it for granted that all intelligent 
spiritists, who know anything about telepathy, will admit that 
when a medium, acting under test conditions, states a fact 
that the sitter already knows, telepathy cannot be eliminated 
from the list of possible causes. Indeed, no scientific psy- 
chical researcher would for a moment consider the possibility 
of any other explanation. Why? Simply because he knows 
telepathy to be a vera causa, and he does not know anything 
about spirits. At least he is not certain about them; and 
most likely he is an adherent of the scientific axiom which Dr. 
Savage has given us, namely — "we must not explain the un- 
known by something else that is still more unknown." I 
have quoted Dr. Hodgson as an adherent to this principle, 
and F. W. H. Myers, in his "Science and a Future Life/' 
(see p. 32), tells us that, forgotten or unforgotten, active or 
latent, "whatever has gone into the mind may come out of 
the mind." We may, therefore, safely assume that all are 
agreed that whatever the sitter knows must be presumed to 



166 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

be available to the medium. Nor will it be disputed that the 
sitter may obtain access to knowledge telepathically. 

Now, if the exhaustive investigations of the S. P. R. count 
for anything at all, it must be admitted that they have demon- 
strated two things in regard to telepathy, namely, (i) that 
telepathy is a power belonging exclusively to the subjective 
mind, or subliminal consciousness ; and that, consequently, in- 
formation may be received from,or imparted to, another sub- 
jective mind, without the knowledge or consent of the objec- 
tive mind of either. The evidence for this in the Society's 
reports is overwhelming. (2) It is also in evidence that rel- 
atives, friends and acquaintances are always en rapport, and 
that they are always either actually or potentially in com- 
munication. Of 830 cases reported in "Phantasms of the 
Living," only 36 were between strangers. But that number 
is sufficient to show that rapport, for telepathic purposes, is 
not exclusively confined to relatives or intimates. 

We have, then, a basis of admitted facts and principles to 
start upon, namely, (1) that telepathy must be presumed 
whenever the sitter has prior knowledge of the fact commun- 
icated by the medium ; (2) that subliminal knowledge may be 
acquired telepathically, unconsciously to the percipient. The 
only point likely to be in dispute, therefore, is as to whatever 
telepathically acquired knowledge can be conveyed telepath- 
ically to the psychic or medium. If it can, we have an easy 
telepathic solution of all the phenomena of which we have 
been speaking. 

To put the case in concrete form, so that my meaning may 
not be misunderstood or distorted, let us apply the principle 
to one of Dr. Savage's test cases, namely the communication 
supposed to be from his deceased son. All that is necessary 
is to suppose, (1) that Dr. Savage and his son were in tele- 
pathic rapport during the life time of the latter; and that, (2) 
for some reason, he desired to have his private papers taken 
care of by his father, his best friend, — his heart-to-heart con- 
fidant during all the years of his life. Thus far no one will 
dispute the assumptions. (3) Next we must suppose that the 
desire was conveyed from son to father by the only means 
available at the time, namely, by telepathy. No one who is 
conversant with the work of the S. P. R. can doubt this for 
a moment. Of the 830 cases cited in "Phantasms of the 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 167 

Living," a large proportion were cases showing that the dy- 
ing agents were endeavoring to acquaint their relatives or 
friends with some unsatisfied desire, or at least with the fact 
that they were in extremis. Indeed, it may be said that if 
the investigations of the S. P. R. render anything approxi- 
mately certain, it is that dying persons make an effort to in- 
form their relatives and friends of their condition, especially 
if there is any special object to be gained by so doing. If, 
then, the friend or relative toward whom the effort is directed 
happens to be edowed with psychic powers, the effort is suc- 
cessful; and the information conveyed to the subliminal con- 
sciousness is thereby elevated to the supraliminal. On the 
other hand, if the friend is not a psychic the information re- 
mains latent in the subliminal, and may never rise above the 
threshold. 

But, in such a case, if the person afterwards becomes sub- 
jective from any cause, there is likely to ensue an uprush of 
the contents of the subliminal, and he thus becomes conscious 
of the information that had been telepathically conveyed to 
him originally. This phenomenon has been designated by 
Myers as "deferred percipience," several instances, some of 
them experimental, being cited in "Phantasms of the Living." 
(See pp. 56, 70-1, 201-2, 265, 325 and 519.) 

These cases demonstrate that information telepathically 
conveyed, unconsciously to the percipient, reaches his sublim- 
inal consciousness nevertheless, and remains latent until an 
opportunity presents itself for elevating it above the thresh- 
old of normal consciousness. This may happen spontaneous- 
ly, as when the percipient happens to attain the proper psy- 
chic conditions ; or it may be brought about by the percipient 
coming in contact with a psychic who is endowed with tele- 
pathic powers, as in Dr. Savage's case. 

This latter supposition, singularly enough, marks the part- 
ing of the ways. Why? I do not know why it should be 
denied that information telepathically received from one 
party can be telepathically conveyed to a third person, un- 
less it is because the admission of the truth of the proposi- 
tion would be equivalent to an abandonment of the spiritistic 
hypothesis, and an admission of the entire validity of the tel- 
epathic explanation. 

Dr. Savage's case presents the issue in its simplest form. 
He will not deny that he wa,s in telepathic rapport with hj§ 



J68 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

son. Nor will he deny that it was possible that the latter 
conveyed, telepathically, the information relating to his priv- 
ate papers to his father. But he will doubtless deny that it 
was possible for Mrs. Piper to obtain, telepathically, the con- 
tent of that message from the mind in which it was lodged. 

That would be "telepathic a trois," or telepathy bv three;- 
and the average spiritist becomes hysterical whenever that 
subject is broached. Why? Is it because he sees that, if it 
is once admitted that information telepathically received can 
be telepathically transmitted to a third person, the claims of 
spiritism must be abandoned in favor of the telepathic hy- 
pothesis? I can imagine no other adequate cause for either 
the emotional and insensate denial of the proposition or for 
the studied attempt to ignore it. Much less can I see any 
other cause for the assertion that the telepathic hypothesis 
requires the presupposition of "omniscient" intelligence on 
the part of the medium. Be that as it may, the fact remains 
that, if "telepathy by three" is a telepathic potential, it does 
afford a full and complete explanation of every case yet re- 
ported where the psychic was shown to possess supernormal- 
ly acquired knowledge not objectively in the possession of 
any one present. It affords, for instance,, an easy explana- 
ti of each of the twelve cases reported by Dr. Savage, as well 
as of all the cases cited by Prof. Hyslop, It covers, in fact, 
every conceivable case of the kind. 

It becomes important.therefore. to know whether telepathy 
by three is a telepathic potential. Fortunately for our present 
purposes, X)r. Clark Bell has quoted Mr. Lang on that sub- 
ject, and he reports several cases of the kind. (See Dr. Bell's 
article.) It is, in fact, a very common phenomenon.althou^h 
little attention has been paid to it, for the reason that its 
scientific value as bearing upon the subect of spiritism has 
not been fully appreciated by scientists until quite recently. 
In the cases cited by Mr. Lang spirits were out of the ques- 
tion, for nobody was dead; and numerous instances might be 
cited in experimental telepathy by means of hypnotism or 
mesmerism, where all concerned were alive and well. 

It is true that in some cases the source of the telepathic 
message may be difficult to trace, as in the one reported by 
Judge Dailey. But no particulars possessing the slightest 
evidential importance in his case have been verified. A sot 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 1(19 

.disant spirit comes to him and tells him that his name is 
John Taylor ;that he was born in New Bedford; that he ran 
away when a boy and went to sea ; that he had a very check- 
ered career, which he described with great particularity ; that 
everybody that he ever knew in New Bedford was dead; for 
he had not visited his native place for over 60 years. All this 
Judge Bailey thinks he has "verified," "to a certain extent," 
4)y going to New Bedford and finding that "Taylor was a 
very common family name" in that city, (as it is in most 
other cities) that there were names on tomb-stones that Tay- 
lor had mentioned; that there were streets there that he had 
named, etc., etc. But not one item was verified that tended 
to establish the personal identity of John Taylor, or to show 
that any one of his numerous stories were true. 

Now, Judge Dailey tells us that he is "a lawyer, and 
claims to know something of legal principles." But he does 
not say that he is an expert in weighing the value of evidence. 
If he is, what would he say of the weight of a witness' testi- 
mony should he claim to have witnessed a murder, and, in 
the absence of the corpus delicti, seek to verify his state- 
<ment by showing a street in the city where the tragedy was 
alleged to have occurred, and by naming somebody whose 
patronymic could be found on a tomb-stone in the city ceme- 
tery? I may appear to be straining a point in Judge Dailey*s 
iavor when I say that I still have enough confidence in his 
legal ability to believe that he would summarily dismiss the 
jury and throw the case out of court, if that was the only 
evidence in the case. And yet it exactly parallels the evi- 
dence by which he seeks to establish the personal identity of 
John Taylor,and verify the history of his life as given through 
the medium in the case. Well may the learned Judge ask 
me who telepathed the personal history of John Taylor to- 
the medium. I confess that I do not know. But I do know 
that all the facts bearing upon the case which the Judgje 
learned on his scientific pilgrimage to New Bedford, could 
easily have been learned from a local history of that city. 

As I remarked, it is sometimes difficult to trace the tele- 
pathic connections so as to say just where the information 
conveyed to the medium originated. But they are generally 
just such cases as that upon which Judge Dailey pins his 
faith; that is to say, cases that cannot be either verified or 



170 SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 

disproved. I confess that I am not sufficiently well versed in 
Judge Dailey's legal standard of evidential values to see 
clearly just how it is that an absence of facts tends to prove 
or to disprove, anything in an inductive investigation. Nor 
can I quite appreciate the logic of that attitude of mind which 
impels a hysterical shout of triumph from every spiritistic 
throat whenever a medium tells a long and weird tale that! 
can neither be disproved nor verified. To the mind of the 
average spiritist such cases are the most convincing, for they 
carl then triumphantly ask "How can telepathy account for 
this?" To which the obvious answer is that telepathy is not 
called upon to account for unverified statements. 

This class of cases, however, are not the ones that present 
the real difficulties that may sometimes occur, although they 
are very rare. Let us suppose an extreme case : Suppose a 
soi disant spirit presents himself at a seance and announces 
himself as a stranger to all present; and then proceeds to 
relate facts entirely unknown to those present. Then sup- 
pose that those facts should be afterwards fully verified. 
Obviously, in such a case, it would be difficult to trace the_ 
telepathic connection. But would anybody but a spiritist 
imagine that the telepathic hypothesis had been disproved' 
by an occasional failure to find the facts in such a case? I 
think not. And yet these are the cases upon which spiritists 
rely to establish their own theories and to "disprove" the 
telepathic hypothesis. In other words, it is the essence of 
the logic of spiritism to rely chiefly upon the absence of 
facts when conducting an inductive investigation. Is Judge 
Dailey's legal education responsible for this principle of his 
logic? If so, he would hang a man for murder simply for the 
want of evidence to establish either his guilt or his innocence. 

Logically, the case stands thus: (i) There are sporadic 
cases where it is difficult to determine from what source a 
telepathic communication originated. 

(2) On the other hand, there are innumerable cases where 
the telepathic connection is obvious, as in all of Prof. 
Hyslop's cases, in all of Dr. Savage's cases, and in most of 
those cited by Judge Dailey. 

(3) In all cases where the facts are known, "telepathy by 
three" affords a complete telepathic explanation. 



SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY. 171 

I submit that those few cases in which the facts are not 
known should not be allowed to weigh one hair against the 
great mass of cases where the telepathic connection is ob- 
vious ; especially since the latter can all be explained on the 
telepathic hypothesis, — assuming, of course, that "telepathy 
by three" is a telepathic potential. 

I re-submit my original proposition: — If A can, by any 
known means of communication, convey a message to B, B 
can convey the same message by the same means, to- C, other 
things, of course, being equal. 

If not, why not? 

I have repeatedly submitted this proposition to- spiritsts, 
and as repeatedly asked the same question. If it is- not true 
there must be a valid answer to the proposition; but that 
answer has never been attempted otherwise than by the bare 
assertion, without argument, that "it is carrying telepathy 
too far." On the other hand, if the proposition is true, spir- 
ism, considered as a scientific proposition, is disposed ofi 
Nor can this queston be successfully evaded by an attempt 
to ignore it, nor by substituting for argument such asser- 
tions as that the telepathic theory requires the presupposi- 
tion of "omniscience" on the part of the psychic. 



■ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS $ 



022 172 000 3 



Hi. 



:&mA$m. 












■I 



*»*rd 



i ■ , 



